Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- OpenAI has introduced Voice Engine, a brand new AI system able to recreating human voices.
- The corporate is testing this product with “a small group of companies.”
- OpenAI is maintaining it personal for now to look at the potential (and apparent) risks.
OpenAI, the corporate behind ChatGPT, has been on a little bit of a roll these days. ChatGPT’s success has been astounding, in fact, however the firm additionally not too long ago introduced Sora, a system able to creating 60-second video clips that look very practical. Now, the corporate has introduced a brand new system known as Voice Engine, which might recreate human voices (by way of The New York Occasions).
Like Sora, OpenAI isn’t permitting the general public to make use of Voice Engine — a minimum of not but. For now, the corporate is privately testing the system with “a small group of companies.” Clearly, the explanation it’s doing that is as a result of large moral implications of a system that may mimic an actual individual’s voice.
The New York Occasions obtained to demo the system and shared some clips, which you’ll be able to hear on the earlier hyperlink. The primary clip is a 16-second recording of an actual man with a thick Portuguese accent. He introduces himself and says he’s making this clip to “help non-verbal people categorical themselves extra absolutely.” The subsequent clip is Voice Engine’s recreation of his voice saying one thing fully totally different. Yet one more clip is a recreation of the person’s voice however talking in Portuguese as a substitute of English.
Each Voice Engine clips don’t sound the identical as the unique clip. Nonetheless, they’re completely shut sufficient that it will in all probability idiot somebody who knew that man’s voice into pondering he really stated these issues.
The scary factor about that’s the potential for utilizing a software like this to unfold misinformation. Politicians, celebrities, and journalists might simply have their voices co-opted by Voice Engine after which made to say something anybody wished. With a bit of enhancing and a convincing video observe, who is aware of what could possibly be performed?
There are additionally voice authentication methods used world wide for safety. It is rather doable Voice Engine might enable individuals to trick these methods, placing delicate info in danger.
“It is a delicate factor”
OpenAI product supervisor Jeff Harris stated, “It is a delicate factor, and you will need to get it proper.” OpenAI is experimenting with watermarking methods to assist differentiate precise recordings from artificial ones. The workforce can be open concerning the moral issues this method brings up.
Nonetheless, it’s also arguing Voice Engine might do a number of good. For instance, individuals who might as soon as communicate however misplaced their voice later in life might start to speak once more utilizing a facsimile of their very own voice. Physicist Stephen Hawking is a well-known instance of an individual who might have benefited from a voice service like this. Voice Engine might additionally protect the voices of people who find themselves now not alive and likewise work in lots of business settings, akin to within the creation of audiobooks.
OpenAI says it has no plans but for a public rollout of Voice Engine. Like Sora, it solely desires to display what it could possibly do.
