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Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

news.ycombinator.com

81–90 of 471 posts

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#81
post #53

I'm having a hard time coming up with a non-nefarious use case for this.

Anything written can be listened to with this tech. Any news article, any short story, a draft of a piece of writing you're working on. There is too much text for human beings to read it all.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#82

Is there a way for me to preemptively request (demand) my voice (likeness) never be used by this service? How would one go about doing that?

Looking at the voices they use as a demo on their blog post (https://play.ht/blog/introducing-truly-realistic-text-to-spe... is just one example) I don't think consent is really on their radar.

Their FAQ says

> Can I clone anyone's voice?

> Yes, we allow you to clone another person's voice if you have their consent. As you can imagine, cloning a voice which sounds exactly like the person is a powerful thing and can be easily misused. We deeply care about ethics and privacy and have implemented verfication processes and regulations to avoid people cloning anyone's voice without their consent.

But I very much doubt that they've gotten the consent of even half the celebrity voices they're using to promote their service.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#83
post #62

Is there any positive use case for this technology? YC, care to comment?

I'm honestly a bit baffled at the lack of thought here.

Anything written can be listened to with this tech. Any news article, any short story, a draft of a piece of writing you're working on. There is too much text for human beings to read it all.

Translating from one medium to another is extremely useful.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#84

This is the first startup here where I think the tech should essentially be illegal. It's cool tech, yes I'm impressed at the achievement. Nuclear weapons are impressive too. OTOH this kind of thing is getting easier and easier to do, so what's a realistic way forward?

We're getting to the point where all voice conversations will need to be authenticated via OTP, even between family members, on the phone. Especially for banking, etc.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voice generator tech has created some decent surreal memes (like audio recordings of Biden, Obama, and Trump playing video games together). Outside of memes or maybe the occasional well-intentioned prank, I really can't think of anything either.

Massively reducing costs for Voice Over in Video Games. This should make it even feasible to create mods with audio which would be great :)

I think “talking” with dead relatives or friends will become real pretty soon.

If people can find comfort hearing their mom say words of encouragement in a tough situation, I think a lot of people would do it. Kinda hard because for some others that would mean never getting closure.

Weird stuff is certainly about to happen…

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you on this. I can't honestly think a good use case for the average user to generate audio this way. Maybe some niche use case in like movie or tv production where you can generate a missing line without flying in an actor or something. Or maybe for generating dialogues for videogames. But those are business use cases, not things for the genral public.

Pretty much any hobby video game development or animation?

So basically stealing other people voice for you hobby? Great!

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#87
post #55

The world is going to become a much worse place over the next few years. I want to be an optimist, but it will take huge leaps in humanity's societal structures for AI not to be a net negative for the vast majority of people on this planet in the short term.

I’m starting to see early signs that some of those Black Mirror episodes really aren’t that far off.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#88
post #53

I'm having a hard time coming up with a non-nefarious use case for this.

I'd get a kick out of having my own blog posts read to me in James Earl Jones's voice.

Or, heck, my own voice. Though it'd be surreal to hear not-me-but-me saying things I've never said.

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#89
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much any hobby video game development or animation?

So basically stealing other people voice for you hobby? Great!

Who says it has to be someone else's voice?

Re: Launch HN: Play.ht (YC W23) – Generate and clone voices from 20 seconds of audio

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voice generator tech has created some decent surreal memes (like audio recordings of Biden, Obama, and Trump playing video games together). Outside of memes or maybe the occasional well-intentioned prank, I really can't think of anything either.

Massively reducing costs for Voice Over in Video Games. This should make it even feasible to create mods with audio which would be great :)

I would consider studios taking voice actors' voices and using them to generate new content beyond their contract to be abuse. I'm sure big corporations are rubbing their hands in anticipation, but I'm sure killing the VA industry will make the world just a tiny bit worse for everyone else.

Mods are more difficult to attach a moral judgement to. I don't think I'd really consider them malicious, as long as they're not sold, but there's a very thin line between a high quality mod and stealing someone's voice.

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