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A.I. my A.S.
AI is already plaguing artistic endeavors, writing, and many other fields of human activity. I’ve seen audiobooks appear on Audible narrated by “Virtual Voice,” and others from other publishers. The reviews seem to be universally negative. So I guess the business case is “Good, fast, cheap: pick two.”
Last week I got a look at how AI is encroaching on my craft. I got an offer to participate in a beta-testing program. I would narrate and produce two hours of audio, which would be used to train an AI to sound like me. When I got a contract to narrate a book, I would use the AI to do the narration, doing an edit pass to fill in corrections and improvements to things like wonky inflection, and deliver it as the finished product. I would pay for this with a substantially reduced royalty, but the idea would be that I could crank out books far faster.
I politely declined to participate.
For one thing, I feel it would be fraudulent to publish a narration as if I had done it, and any asterisk or disclaimer about “AI-assisted” would cheapen whatever reputation I might have.
More than that, I don’t trust any company that would bring me into a program like this to not use my trained AI to train their own, and pretty soon they wouldn’t need me for anything at all. That day may come. As it is now, all the narrations published under my name are copyrighted by either the publisher or the author, and I’m quite sure none of them would give permission for them to be used to train AI. But how often have the companies that are training AI bothered to ask permission?
It’s frustrating, but I’m certainly not the only craftsman who has seen technology overwhelm his craft and render it obsolete. One advantage of being an old geezer is that if it takes 15 years for the buggy-whip market to dry up, I can still make buggy whips up to the end. Doubtless lots of candlemakers and tinsmiths have felt the same.
But, in the meantime, any publisher who offers me a title to narrate, or anyone who pays for the finished product, can be assured that it is 100% me, with no asterisks or robo-help. It’s what I do, and I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can.
Published in General
I feel for you. When I got into television in the early 1980s so much of it was still a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants endeavor. By the time I reached the end I was a tech monkey. The technology made life decidedly less creative.
Even the producers and directors were limited in their creativity because someone in either Los Angeles, New York or Bristol had decided to dictate the look of the telecasts for their particular network. ESPN is actively working on computer programs that, if realized, would make 95% of us obsolete.
Podcasts on topics I might have listened to in the past are now avoided because the persons running their youtube channels have decided that having AI narrators is cool.
So for the time being, I won’t be keeping up with UFO topics, Big foot in Yosemite etc due to how distasteful these narrators sound.
Nothing like the warm, rich sound of computers mispronouncing words.
There are still buggy whip makers and candlemakers. I suspect there are as many buggy whips and candles made in the traditional manner as there were 150 years ago because there is still a need for growth and the US population is now 340 million in the US today vs 38 million in 1875 and we are a much wealthier nation today. Of course they are luxury craft items today.
Those eyes…
Hers, of course.
People aren’t seeing Big Foot because they are looking down at their cellphones. May help the Big Foot Population recover.
So, does she always look like that just from the side? Or is it a Gowron thing?
People are using AI for art everywhere, and a lot of the English listening books kids use at school in Korea have AI voice files which sound terrible.
I guess writers will be replaced next. Then, bodies. Yegads.
My better half is persuaded that AI calls and talks at her about Medicare. She hangs up.
I took a call just this morning that almost had to be AI.
I could see a possible justification for AI doing right-now responses to questions etc, where the variables are basically unknown. But for something like textbooks, especially language textbooks, where everything is already known and only has to be recorded once – and where the best pronunciation is important – not a chance.
If you try to search for ratings or rankings of products, you will get many many AI generated reviews and review sites that basically tell you nothing other than that the products they are pushing are THE BEST.
This comment is THE BEST.
I’ve never seen a comment that good before. It is The Best.
As an artificial language model, it would be inappropriate for me to opine on whether it is the best.
So, which Ricochet members are actually AI bots making posts? Hmmmm?
Now, let’s not always see the same hands…
On the Ricochet Podcast, James Lileks mentioned his suspicion about one, maybe a month ago.
As I recall, it was me. And he was wrong. Which he should remember, since we’d communicated in the past.
The algorithm makes you say that.
It might be a two-fer, as far as the Big Foot populace.
The folks are intently looking down, and don’t notice Mr or Mrs Big Foot. And then Big Foot can have lunch!
Sittin’ down in Harlem at a table for two,
There was four of us: me, your big feet, and you.
From ankles up, honey, you sure are sweet;
From there down, there’s just too much feet.
Yo’ feet’s too big,
Don’t want ‘cha cause yo’ feet’s too big..
I have my suspicions. Most likely AI aided.
What if he was right?
There are so many awful narrators out there, how could we tell for sure which ones are AI? Will it be because they don’t have annoying voices?
I recently finished listening to Andy Serkis narrate “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” What a pleasure to listen to someone who actually has talent and treats the narration as a performance rather than drudgery. I’m ruined now for all other narrators.
Sometimes I buy a book that is a favorite of mine that I’ve not read in years and just have to abandon listening to it because the narrator is just that bad. Some screechy woman narrating for Barbara Tuchman, for example, made me want to stab an ice pick through my ears.
Now, I’m listening to some guy narrate “Red Storm Rising.” I’ve heard him narrate before. I think he has a serious need for some sinus surgery. Plus, he seems to have no idea how to pronounce many words, usually jargon, but it’s no excuse not to know how jargon is pronounced. Sometimes he puts some energy into a line, rarely, and it is so out of place from the rest of his nasal intoning, that I wonder if someone goosed him.
Frankly, if AI comes along and has a pleasant voice and has learned how to inflect and pronounce, and whatever else, frankly it won’t be so bad. Can you imagine if you can choose the voice? Wow. Sales would sky rocket.
We all have our suspicions…