AI voice cloning technology leverages advanced machine learning and neural network algorithms to create highly realistic digital replicas of human voices, capable of mimicking tone, inflection, and emotional nuance with remarkable fidelity.

Recent advancements have made it possible to generate convincing synthetic speech from minimal audio samples—sometimes as short as three to fifteen seconds—making the technology accessible to a broad range of users, including those without technical expertise .

This rapid evolution has positioned AI voice cloning at the intersection of innovation and controversy, as its applications expand across entertainment, education, accessibility, and security, while simultaneously raising significant ethical and legal concerns.

**Development and Technical Foundations** The development of AI voice cloning is driven by large datasets of voice recordings and sophisticated deep learning models.

Notable systems, such as Tortoise, have utilized thousands of hours of unstructured voice data, enabling the AI not only to replicate what is said but also how it is said, capturing subtle prosodic and emotional cues .

Companies like ElevenLabs have introduced multilingual voice cloning tools that can generate speech in various languages while preserving the original speaker’s tone and style, further enhancing the technology’s versatility .

OpenAI’s Voice Engine exemplifies the state-of-the-art, producing natural-sounding speech for applications ranging from reading assistance to content translation and providing voices for individuals with speech impairments .

**Applications Across Sectors** In **entertainment and media**, AI voice cloning is used to create realistic voiceovers for films, video games, and audiobooks, enabling content localization and reducing the need for extensive human voiceover work.

For example, China Media Group launched an AI-dubbed English documentary, demonstrating how AI can facilitate global media outreach and make content accessible to broader audiences .

ElevenLabs’ technology allows for the creation of multilingual content, maintaining the emotional authenticity of the original voice across languages .

The technology is also used to resurrect the voices of deceased celebrities, as seen in digital avatars like the Marilyn Monroe chatbot, raising questions about digital immortality and posthumous consent .

In **education and accessibility**, AI voice cloning offers transformative potential.

It enables the creation of personalized, authentic listening comprehension materials tailored to learners’ proficiency levels, which is particularly valuable for foreign language instructors seeking low-proficiency (ILR 1 - 1+) resources .

Apple’s Personal Voice feature, for instance, allows users to generate a digital voice by reading text for about 15 minutes, supporting communication for individuals with degenerative diseases .

Companies like Voiceitt and Ava focus on speech recognition for non-standard speech, integrating their solutions into mainstream platforms to assist users with speech disabilities .

These tools not only enhance inclusivity but also support language acquisition by providing learners with realistic, customizable audio materials .

**Scams and Malicious Use** The accessibility and realism of AI voice cloning have also enabled its exploitation for fraudulent purposes.

There have been documented cases where scammers used cloned voices to impersonate family members, such as a mother being deceived by a fake kidnapping call using her daughter’s cloned voice .

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and law enforcement agencies have issued warnings about the use of AI-generated voices in scams, extortion, and misinformation campaigns, highlighting the urgent need for public vigilance and regulatory intervention .

**Legal Implications and Regulatory Landscape** The legal landscape surrounding AI voice cloning is rapidly evolving in response to its growing use and associated risks.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that AI-generated voice calls fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), requiring telemarketers to obtain prior express consent before using such technology in robocalls .

This empowers state attorneys general to take legal action against voice cloning scams and aims to curb voter suppression and misinformation during elections [291bb2c8-dc94-498b-bebe-a12ec86a63f3_277167094_1].

The European Union is advancing legislation that includes penalties for violations related to AI development and operation, while Japan’s government panel has called for voluntary protections by AI operators, noting that current laws inadequately protect intellectual property rights against AI technologies .

Intellectual property and copyright issues are at the forefront of legal debates.

Copyright Office is actively seeking public input on how AI-generated audio intersects with copyright law, particularly regarding the unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train AI models and the copyrightability of AI-generated content [07c8b36c-5fa6-4b63-8959-e0d35aa06bff_850144403_1].

The music industry has seen major record labels sue AI music generators for copyright infringement, arguing that these systems were trained on copyrighted works without permission .

The right of publicity, which protects individuals’ control over the commercial use of their likenesses and voices, is increasingly invoked to address unauthorized AI-generated voice imitations, as seen in legislative efforts like Tennessee’s "ELVIS Act" [46e0c9c6-d356-4d00-8868-fb4ec4361b5b_569641390_1].

Industry and labor organizations are also responding.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has implemented contracts stating that only humans can be voice actors, aiming to protect members from being replaced by AI and ensuring compensation for any AI-generated use of their voices [81c8fd18-d07e-44e3-b019-cebf19791598_103508397_1].

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached agreements restricting generative AI use in scriptwriting, clarifying that AI cannot be considered a "writer" and that AI-produced material cannot serve as source material for human writers .

**Ethical Challenges** The ethical challenges of AI voice cloning are multifaceted.

Consent and ownership are central concerns, as the technology enables the replication of voices without the individual’s knowledge or approval, raising profound questions about autonomy and privacy .

The use of AI to resurrect the voices of deceased individuals, as in the case of Amazon’s Alexa mimicking lost loved ones, introduces dilemmas about digital immortality and the wishes of the deceased .

Bias and discrimination are also risks, as AI systems trained on unrepresentative data may perpetuate systemic inequalities or produce outputs that disadvantage certain demographic groups .

In education, overreliance on AI-generated voices could diminish the human elements of teaching, such as mentorship and emotional support, while the use of student data for training AI models raises significant privacy concerns .

Transparency and accountability are essential for building trust in AI voice cloning applications.

Educational institutions and companies are encouraged to maintain clear communication about how AI tools are used, how data is handled, and the decision-making processes behind AI-generated content .

UNESCO and other organizations advocate for regulations ensuring that generative AI tools augment rather than undermine human intellectual abilities, emphasizing the need for validation and oversight in educational settings .

**Real-World Examples** AI voice cloning’s impact is evident in diverse real-world scenarios.

In addition to the China Media Group’s AI-dubbed documentary , OpenAI faced controversy for allegedly using a voice similar to Scarlett Johansson’s in its chatbot without her consent, highlighting the potential for high-profile legal disputes .

In political campaigns, AI-generated voices have been used to create personalized messages for voters, demonstrating the technology’s reach beyond traditional media .

In the realm of accessibility, UCLA researchers developed a soft patch that translates throat muscle movements into speech, offering a lifeline to individuals who have lost their ability to speak .

Companies like Voiceitt and Ava are improving communication for people with speech disabilities and the Deaf community by enabling spontaneous speech recognition and natural-sounding AI voices .

**Detection and Countermeasures** To address the risks of fraud and deepfakes, organizations are developing detection technologies capable of distinguishing between real and AI-generated voices.

The FTC has awarded prizes for such innovations, underscoring the importance of proactive measures to combat deception .

OpenAI has proposed watermarking generated audio to trace its origin and prevent unauthorized use, while

AI voice cloning technology leverages advanced machine learning and neural network algorithms to create highly realistic digital replicas of human voices, capable of mimicking tone, inflection, and emotional nuance with remarkable fidelity.

AI voice cloning technology leverages advanced machine learning and neural network algorithms to create highly realistic digital replicas of human voices, capable of mimicking tone, inflection, and emotional nuance with remarkable fidelity.

AI voice cloning technology leverages advanced machine learning and neural network algorithms to create highly realistic digital replicas of human voices, capable of mimicking tone, inflection, and emotional nuance with remarkable fidelity.

Recent advancements have made it possible to generate convincing synthetic speech from minimal audio samples—sometimes as short as three to fifteen seconds—making the technology accessible to a broad range of users, including those without technical expertise .

Title:

Content: OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, provided a glimpse into their latest artificial intelligence (AI) innovation on Friday—a tool known as Voice Engine, capable of generating “natural-sounding speech” and mimicking human voices with remarkable accuracy. According to OpenAI’s blog post, Voice Engine can produce lifelike speech from just a single 15-second audio sample, closely resembling the original speaker.

This cutting-edge AI tool has far-reaching applications, including reading assistance, content translation, and providing a voice for individuals who are nonverbal or afflicted by speech conditions. Despite its potential benefits, OpenAI acknowledges the serious risks associated with Voice Engine, particularly in an election year.

Development of Voice Engine began in late 2022, with private testing conducted among a select group of trusted partners starting late last year. OpenAI stresses that these partners adhere to stringent usage policies, ensuring explicit consent from the original speaker and prohibiting unauthorized impersonation.

To maintain transparency, any audio generated by Voice Engine is watermarked to aid in tracing its origin. OpenAI advocates for widespread deployment of voice authentication to verify the original speaker’s consent and suggests implementing a “no-go voice list” to prevent the creation of voices resembling prominent figures.

Moreover, OpenAI recommends phasing out voice-based authentication for sensitive information access, such as bank accounts. Despite these precautions, the company remains cautious about releasing Voice Engine more broadly.

OpenAI aims to foster a dialogue on the responsible deployment of synthetic voices, considering societal adaptation to these advancements. Based on ongoing discussions and test results, the company will make informed decisions regarding the technology’s widespread deployment.

The unveiling of Voice Engine comes amid escalating concerns surrounding AI-generated deepfakes and their potential to propagate misinformation, particularly in the context of elections. As OpenAI navigates the ethical and societal implications of Voice Engine, the tech community awaits further insights into the future of this transformative AI tool.

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The government announced winners of a contest to tell real voices from deepfake audio

The federal government is trying to promote efforts to counter so-called audio deepfakes by awarding four organizations prizes for developing technologies to distinguish between authentic human speech and audio generated by artificial intelligence.

The prizes, awarded Monday by the Federal Trade Commission, come as the agency has issued warnings to consumers about scams using AI-generated voices and as concerns grow about the influence of deepfakes on this year's elections.

One winner, OriginStory, created by people including researchers at Arizona State University, uses sensors to detect things that humans do such as breathing, motion and heartbeat information.

"We have this very unique speech production mechanism. And so by sensing it in parallel with the acoustic signal, you can verify that the speech is coming from a human" Visar Berisha, a professor at ASU's College of Health Solutions who was part of the team, told NPR in an interview.

OriginStory's technology leverages sensors in existing hardware, though it's not available in all recording equipment - newer Android phones and iPhones don't have them. Berisha says they are focusing on hardware that already can use it.

Another, DeFake, made by Ning Zhang, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, injects data into recordings of real voices so AI-generated voice clones don't sound like the real person.

Zhang says his technology was inspired from earlier tools developed by University of Chicago researchers that place hidden changes in images so that artificial intelligence algorithms that try to train themselves on the images cannot mimic them.

A third, AI Detect, uses AI to catch AI. It's made by startup Omni Speech, and its CEO David Przygoda says their machine learning algorithm extracts features from audio clips like inflection and uses that to teach the models to tell the difference between real and fake audio.

"They have a really hard time transitioning between different emotions, whereas a human being can be amused in one sentence and distraught in the next." says Przygoda.

In an FTC video, the company says its tool is over 99.9% accurate, but Przygoda says it's not yet ready for independent testing, and the contest judges did not test the submissions under real world conditions.

The three winners will split a cash prize of $35,000. Another company, Pindrop Security, received recognition for its work but will not receive cash because it's a larger organization.

In a statement, the company says the FTC's award, "recognizes and validates that a decade of work Pindrop has put in to study the problem of voice clones and other deepfakes."

There are a number of existing commercial detection tools that rely on machine learning, but factors such as sound quality and media format can make them less reliable, and detectors need to constantly be trained on new deepfake generators to catch the audio they produce.

Berisha says this is a losing game in the long term, referencing the challenges that detectors of AI-generated text faced. OpenAI took down its own detector months after it launched, citing poor results.

"I think we're headed in exactly the same direction for voices. And so if AI-based detectors work now, I think they'll work less well six months from now and less well a year from now, two years from now. And at some point, they will stop working altogether."

This drove him to develop a process that authenticates human voices as words are being spoken.

Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission bannedAI-enabled robocalls. Synthetic audio company ElevenLabs has a tool to detect its own product and is calling on other producers of synthetic voices to do the same. The European Union recently passed and "AI act' and state legislatures in the U.S.are passing lawsthat regulate deepfakes. Researchers, detection software makers and the FTC say that technology like this can't be the only solution to the challenges posed by generative AI tools.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Huo Jingnan
Huo Jingnan (she/her) is an assistant producer on NPR's investigations team.

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Content: Lok Sabha polls: How GenAI is rewriting political campaigning strategies

GenAI is being widely employed by political parties and candidates for a personalised approach to voters

Illustration: Ajay Mohanty

RangoliAnushka BhardwajBoris Pradhan New Delhi
Generative artificial intelligence is making a serious impact on political campaigns in India, with instances of AI-generated content being shared by parties on both sides of the political divide. These include K T Rama Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) campaigning for the Congress, audio and video messages featuring deceased leaders J Jayalalitha and M Karunanidhi, and a viral song video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As India heads to the Lok Sabha polls, GenAI-driven campaigns are gaining traction, especially given that over half the population uses at least one social media networking site. “The introduction of GenAI in poll campaigns has led to a significant increase in the re-personification of candidates,” noted Preetham Venkky, chief digital officer at DDB Mudra Group, a marketing agency.

Echoing the observation, Diggaj Mogra, a political consultant and director at Jarvis Technology and Strategy Consulting, said personalised audio messages are in high demand due to their relatability, scalability, and cost efficiency.

GenAI-driven content in politics has witnessed a sharp uptick since October-November 2023, after a few videos, including one featuring the late Karunanidhi, went viral recently. “Initially, we used to get only 1-2 requests in a year. But during October-November last year, such requests surged to more than a hundred,” said Divyendra Singh Jadoun, founder, The Indian Deepfaker, a synthetic media company.

Overcoming the language barrier

The Indian Deepfaker offers voice-cloning services in 117 different languages. Jadoun explained: “The calls are made by a conversational AI agent, giving the impression that the leader is making a direct conversation with the voter, by using his/her name.”

With a diverse voter base and a wide range of local issues and interests, AI-generated content is helping politicians to be omnipresent. “Voice cloning can now address each issue mentioned in the manifesto, removing language and knowledge barriers,” observed Venkky.

Vaibhav Walia, chairman of the communication war-room 2024 for the Congress, revealed the plans to translate Rahul Gandhi’s speeches into almost eight different languages using GenAI and machine learning (ML). He added that AI is being used not only for content creation but also for reaching the target audience.

Easing the cost burden

Also, easy accessibility, scalability, and mass production have cut down the cost of campaigning, especially for independent candidates and those from smaller parties.

Senthil Nayagam, founder of Muonium AI, a Chennai-based visual effects studio, said that parties pay approximately Rs 15-20 per video targeting a particular voter. However, the cost may vary depending on the level of personalisation in the content. Jadoun noted that a full campaign, including voice cloning, a digital avatar of the leader, and social media dissemination, can be designed under Rs 40-45 lakh with the help of GenAI.

“About 80 per cent of the work we do is AI-driven. We have a small team of less than 10 people. AI has cut down my labour costs by 70 per cent,” said Nayagam.

Tool on trial

Despite its cost efficiency and high level of personalisation, GenAI is still being used as an experimental tool by political parties. Abbin Theepura, a political strategist and founder of Politique Marquer, believes that “this Lok Sabha election is more of a trial for GenAI content.” He explained: “Our AI model helps us analyse data for creating accurate advertisements. It has reduced the hours we used to spend on excel-sheets but the groundwork is very much there. Our team collects the data and AI interprets it.”

The wild West

Tech giants and GenAI platforms, including Meta, Google, and OpenAI, are in discussions with the Election Commission of India about monitoring AI-generated content. However, an official framework is still largely absent. Preetham Venkky suggested that each social media platform needs to build a stronger mechanism to regulate the use of GenAI, though he noted that this goal has not been achieved for the current poll season.

Jadoun explained that customised phone calls collect data, such as location and age. This data, along with local concerns and recommendations, can be used by political parties to plan for welfare programmes.

While startups and political parties have their own conditions and guidelines for using GenAI, there is a lack of standardised measures. Jadoun revealed that his company rejected over 50 requests in November from customers who wanted to edit audio and video content to disparage political rivals, some of which contained explicit content. “But some firms agree to such conditions at a very low cost,” he added.

Changing landscape

- Easy accessibility, scalability, and mass production with the help of AI have cut down the cost of campaigning, especially for independent candidates

- Rs 40-45 lakh for a full political campaign

- 117 languages offered in voice-cloning services

- 70% cut in labour costs of firms

- Rs 15-20 per video targeting a particular voter

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First Published: Mar 17 2024 | 10:40 PM IST

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Content: Language No Barrier: New AI tool can clone voice and make it say anything in multiple languages

Imagine former US President Donald Trump speaking in flawless Hindi. A new AI voice cloning tool by ElevenLabs can clone voices and make them say anything in a bunch of different languages. All it needs is a three-second sample clip and a bit of text as the prompt.

Mehul Reuben Das May 03, 2023 13:42:20 IST

Imagine former US President Donald Trump speaking in flawless Hindi. A new AI voice cloning tool by ElevenLabs can clone voices and make them say anything in a bunch of different languages. All it needs is a three-second sample clip and a bit of text as the prompt.

As advanced as AI-based voice cloning has been, there were a few limitations to it. For example, voice generators were mainly bound by the language of the source they were trained in or rather the language of the prompt that was given to them. Now, ElevenLabs, an American AI software developing company has come up with a tool that does away with that limitation.

ElevenLabs’ new AI tool can clone the voice of a person and make it say anything in a bunch of different languages. All it needs is a clear voice sample of about 3 seconds, although it also suggests that the longer the sample, the better will be the results. The new tool even manages to maintain the speaker’s original tone of voice.

Limitless possibilities
The creators expect that this would ‘extend the possibilities’ in a variety of industries such as publishing, gaming creation, and media. “Introducing Eleven Multilingual v1: Our New Speech Synthesis Model! We’re thrilled to launch our new model supporting seven new languages: French, German, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.”

“This advancement expands the horizons for creators, game developers, and publishers, and it paves the way for using generative media to create more localized, accessible, and imaginative content,” the company said.

Following the announcement, Twitter was flooded with comments, with users testing the software on various famous faces.

To demonstrate just how capable the new voice cloning AI tool is, Eluna AI, a platform for AI-content creators experimented with a sample clip of former US President Donald Trump.

In their demo, Eluna AI showcased a small clip of Donald Trump, speaking in his native tongue, English, followed by French, Spanish, German, Hindi and Italian, almost perfectly. The generated samples even gets the accent right, almost if he was a native speaker of the new target language.

Another user changed David Attenborough’s voice to German while the BBC broadcaster discussed the prospects of AI. “With this tool, anyone can do it,” stated the Twitter user. “It’s also worth noting that fraudsters will undoubtedly exploit this one.”

ElevenLabs says that its model was designed to understand the emotion and reasoning underlying words in order to produce natural-sounding and persuasive audio. ElevenLabs has said that some numerals and symbols are currently spoken wrongly, but that it is striving to rectify this.

Who is this new tool meant to help?
The US-based company believes its technology will be valuable in a variety of areas, including education and journalism.

Game developers and publishers can build engaging, localised experiences for worldwide audiences, breaking through language barriers and connecting with players and listeners to maximise engagement and efficiency while maintaining quality and accuracy.

“Educational institutions now have the ability to develop audio content for varied users in their target languages, enhancing language comprehension and even pronunciation abilities, as well as responding to different teaching methods and learning demands,” says the report.

Because of the model’s capacity to produce unique character-like voices, audiobook and content developers may also find it beneficial.

The conundrum of AI voice genertors
Despite its benefits, ElevenLabs’ launch comes amid widespread concern about the wave of new voice cloning technology. An unidentified TikTok user went popular last month after sharing an AI-generated Drake song starring The Weeknd.

It sparked concerns about the grey area of AI-created music and whether it constitutes a copyright violation. Nonetheless, ElevenLabs claims to be ‘fully committed’ to respecting creators’ rights in the midst of technological advancements.

“At Eleven, we think that we should seek to make the best use of emerging technology, but not at any expense,” it stated.

“As we create them, we make every effort to put suitable controls in place that reduce the possibility of detrimental abuse. With this in mind, we are entirely committed to both protecting intellectual property rights and taking action against infringement.”

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Music labels are worried because of AI, thanks to a surprising new song ft. Drake X The Weeknd

Someone used AI to create a whole new song featuring Drake and The Weeknd. But because the singers never sang the song, artists and music labels are worried, how AI voice modulation and AI-generated songs can disrupt the industry.

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Artificial Imposter: 47% of Indian phone users have experienced AI voice scams, highest in the world

About half of Indian adults, or 47%, have experienced AI voice scams, nearly double the global average of 25%. Furthermore, nearly 69% of adults say they can't differentiate between a real and an AI-generated voice.

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Content: The integration of AI & ML tools in education

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Artificial Intelligence courses: Developing tomorrow’s leaders

Highlights

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) aren’t just making waves in Silicon Valley; they’re knocking on the doors of our classrooms too.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) aren’t just making waves in Silicon Valley; they’re knocking on the doors of our classrooms too. As we stand at the precipice of technological innovation, it’s evident that AI and ML tools have the potential to revolutionize the educational landscape. From personalized learning experiences to predictive analytics, these cutting-edge technologies promise to enhance learning performance and redefine the educational experience for students and educators alike. However, amidst this wave of transformation, we cannot afford to overlook the ethical considerations that accompany the integration of AI and ML tools into educational settings. While the prospects are tantalizing, we must tread carefully, mindful of the ethical implications that arise when algorithms and data intersect. Let’s look at these implications closely:

Bias and Discrimination: Challenging the Status Quo

AI and ML algorithms operate on the principle of learning from data patterns. However, if the training data harbors biases, these algorithms can perpetuate systemic inequalities and discrimination. Studies reveal that AI-driven assessment tools often exhibit racial and gender biases, disadvantaging students from marginalized communities. For instance, a study published in the Journal of Educational Computing Research found that an AI-powered grading system consistently rated essays written by female students lower than those penned by male counterparts, irrespective of content quality. Such disparities underscore the critical importance of bias mitigation strategies in AI development and deployment within educational contexts.

Data Privacy: Safeguarding Educational Assets

AI and ML tools often necessitate access to vast repositories of student information. Recent research indicates that 89% of educational institutions collect and store sensitive student data, ranging from academic performance records to personal identifiers. Ensuring the privacy and security of this data is not just a legal obligation but a moral imperative.

Consider a scenario where an AI-powered tutoring platform collects and analyzes students’ browsing history and online activity to tailor learning experiences. While the intent may be to personalize instruction, the potential for data misuse or breaches looms large. According to a survey, only 25% of educators feel adequately trained in data privacy practices, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive privacy protocols in educational AI implementations.

Navigating Ethical Considerations for Responsible Implementation

In navigating the ethical labyrinth of AI and ML integration in education, several guiding principles emerge:

l Prioritizing Data Privacy: Educators must implement robust data privacy protocols, including encryption measures and restricted access controls, to safeguard student information from unauthorized access or misuse.

l Mitigating Biases: AI developers should adopt inclusive data sampling methods and employ bias detection algorithms to identify and rectify discriminatory patterns in training datasets.

l Preserving Teacher-Student Relationships: While embracing technological innovations, educators must reaffirm the irreplaceable role of human teachers in fostering mentorship, guidance, and emotional support in the learning journey.

l Ensuring Transparency: Schools and educational institutions must foster open dialogue and transparency regarding the implementation of AI and ML tools, providing students and educators with comprehensive insights into data usage, algorithmic decision-making processes, and potential implications for learning outcomes.

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What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

This rapid evolution has positioned AI voice cloning at the intersection of innovation and controversy, as its applications expand across entertainment, education, accessibility, and security, while simultaneously raising significant ethical and legal concerns.

**Development and Technical Foundations** The development of AI voice cloning is driven by large datasets of voice recordings and sophisticated deep learning models.

**Development and Technical Foundations** The development of AI voice cloning is driven by large datasets of voice recordings and sophisticated deep learning models.

**Development and Technical Foundations** The development of AI voice cloning is driven by large datasets of voice recordings and sophisticated deep learning models.

Notable systems, such as Tortoise, have utilized thousands of hours of unstructured voice data, enabling the AI not only to replicate what is said but also how it is said, capturing subtle prosodic and emotional cues .

Deepdub, a film dubbing company, uses an AI to process voice and translate into a different language and promises to preserve what?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

Companies like ElevenLabs have introduced multilingual voice cloning tools that can generate speech in various languages while preserving the original speaker’s tone and style, further enhancing the technology’s versatility .

Deepdub, a film dubbing company, uses an AI to process voice and translate into a different language and promises to preserve what?

How will AI Voice help educators with building courses?

OpenAI’s Voice Engine exemplifies the state-of-the-art, producing natural-sounding speech for applications ranging from reading assistance to content translation and providing voices for individuals with speech impairments .

**Applications Across Sectors** In **entertainment and media**, AI voice cloning is used to create realistic voiceovers for films, video games, and audiobooks, enabling content localization and reducing the need for extensive human voiceover work.

For example, China Media Group launched an AI-dubbed English documentary, demonstrating how AI can facilitate global media outreach and make content accessible to broader audiences .

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Content: Advertisment

China Media Group Debuts AI-dubbed English Documentary, Pioneering Global Communication

China Media Group launches its first AI-dubbed English documentary, enhancing global reach and fostering international understanding through advanced AI technology.

Aqsa Younas Rana
Updated On
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In a groundbreaking move, China Media Group has launched its first AI-dubbed English documentary, marking a significant milestone in the use of artificial intelligence for global media outreach. This innovative approach to dubbing not only showcases the advancements in AI technology but also underscores China's ambitions to foster better international communication and understanding. Through this initiative, the documentary, originally produced in Mandarin, has been made accessible to a broader English-speaking audience, enhancing its global reach and impact.

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Revolutionizing Content Accessibility

The application of AI in dubbing the documentary into English reflects a growing trend in leveraging technology to bridge language barriers. Similar to the educational advancements discussed in 'Voice Cloning in Education: Bridging Language Gaps in Learning Environments,' this initiative by China Media Group capitalizes on the potential of AI voice cloning technology. By generating lifelike digital replicas of human voices, the documentary's AI-dubbed version maintains the authenticity of the original narration while making it understandable for English-speaking viewers. This technological leap not only improves accessibility but also ensures the delivery of content with emotional depth and cultural nuances intact.

The launch of this AI-dubbed documentary serves as a testament to China's commitment to enhancing global dialogue and cultural exchange. By removing language barriers, China Media Group is effectively broadening the documentary's audience, enabling people from different parts of the world to gain insights into Chinese culture, history, and perspectives. This initiative aligns with the broader objective of promoting mutual understanding and respect among diverse global communities, paving the way for more inclusive and informed international discourse.

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Setting New Standards in Media Production

China Media Group's pioneering use of AI technology in documentary dubbing sets new standards for media production and distribution. It illustrates the potential of AI to transform traditional media practices, making content more accessible and engaging for global audiences. As AI technology continues to evolve, it is likely to open up further possibilities for creating multilingual content, thereby enhancing the reach and impact of media across borders. This development also raises important considerations regarding the ethical use of voice cloning technology, underscoring the need for guidelines that ensure its responsible application in media and beyond.

As we reflect on the implications of this technological advancement, it becomes clear that AI-dubbed media content holds significant promise for fostering international understanding and cooperation. By making diverse cultural and educational materials available in multiple languages, we can build a more connected and informed world. The initiative by China Media Group not only highlights the practical applications of AI in media but also invites us to contemplate the future of global communication in an increasingly digital age.

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ElevenLabs’ technology allows for the creation of multilingual content, maintaining the emotional authenticity of the original voice across languages .

Deepdub, a film dubbing company, uses an AI to process voice and translate into a different language and promises to preserve what?

How will AI Voice help educators with building courses?

The technology is also used to resurrect the voices of deceased celebrities, as seen in digital avatars like the Marilyn Monroe chatbot, raising questions about digital immortality and posthumous consent .

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Content:   1. Home >
  2. Consumer Electronics

Apple Previews New Accessibility Features for iPhone, iPad

Apple is reinforcing its commitment to accessibility by bringing new cognitive, speech, and vision assistance features to two of its device lines.
By Adrianna Nine
Assistive Access on the iPad and iPhone. Credit: Apple

Apple is reinforcing its commitment to accessibility by bringing new cognitive, speech, and vision assistance features to the iPhone and iPad, which it previewed on Tuesday. Assistive Access will offer users with cognitive disabilities a new way to use “foundational” iPhone and iPad features. Instead of requiring users to navigate the app clutter, some people might be accustomed to, Assistive Access will make the Music, Calls, Messages, Photos, and Camera apps bigger and place them against a simple white background. Each app will receive interface updates that make it easier to use, like a large emoji-only keyboard in Messaging and a sized-up image grid in Photos. The idea is to support users’ autonomy by giving them the tools to navigate essential apps independently or with supporters.

A potentially groundbreaking new feature, Personal Voice, will help users create a computerized voice that matches their own in case their ability to speak is lost over time. After the user spends roughly 15 minutes reading from a prompt, a local machine-learning algorithm creates a voice template matching the user’s voice. This template can be used with Live Speech, allowing users to turn text inputs into phone or FaceTime audio. People who are unable to speak can type phrases into a small input box using their device’s keyboard. The Calls or FaceTime app will then speak each phrase on behalf of the user. Beyond assisting users with disabilities, Live Speech might help users navigating abusive dynamics communicate information to confidants without alerting anyone who might be listening in.

Live Speech in action on an iPhone. Credit: Apple

iPhone and iPad users with vision disabilities will soon be able to leverage Detection Mode, a new feature within Magnifier that helps people use real-life objects with multiple labels. In a preview, Apple shows a user pointing their iPhone at a microwave’s many buttons. Magnifier zeroes in on a single button and displays the button’s label at the bottom of the screen. Detection Mode reportedly works alongside other Magnifier features like Image Descriptions and Door Detection to guide users through their surroundings.

When these features are rolled out later this year—likely alongside an iOS update or product upgrades—they’ll be accompanied by a slew of other accessibility-focused improvements. Text size will be easier to tweak in Mac apps like Finder, Mail, and Messages, and users can pause moving images (like GIFs) to avoid visual irritation. Voice Control will spotlight new phonetic suggestions to help users differentiate between words that sound the same, like “flour” and “flower.” VoiceOver will come in a handful of new speeds, while SignTime—an on-demand sign language interpretation service—will become available to users in Germany, Italy, Spain, and South Korea this week.

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In **education and accessibility**, AI voice cloning offers transformative potential.

In **education and accessibility**, AI voice cloning offers transformative potential.

In **education and accessibility**, AI voice cloning offers transformative potential.

It enables the creation of personalized, authentic listening comprehension materials tailored to learners’ proficiency levels, which is particularly valuable for foreign language instructors seeking low-proficiency (ILR 1 - 1+) resources .

How will educational institutions benefit from developing AI voice audio content for languages learners?

Respond to different learning demands
Enhance language comprehension

How will educational institutions benefit from developing AI voice audio content for languages learners?

Respond to different learning demands
Enhance language comprehension

Apple’s Personal Voice feature, for instance, allows users to generate a digital voice by reading text for about 15 minutes, supporting communication for individuals with degenerative diseases .

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UCLA Researchers Develop AI-Powered Patch to Restore Speech in Voice Disorders

UCLA's breakthrough soft patch translates throat muscle movements into speech, offering a new hope for individuals with voice disorders.

Safak Costu
Updated On
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A team from the University of California, Los Angeles, has made a groundbreaking advancement in the field of bioengineering by creating a novel soft patch designed to help individuals suffering from voice disorders communicate more effectively. This innovative device, leveraging the magnetoelastic effect and machine learning algorithms, translates throat muscle movements into audible speech, potentially transforming the lives of millions who face daily communication challenges due to voice impairments.

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Revolutionizing Voice Disorder Treatment

Until now, options for those with impaired vocal capabilities have been limited and often inconvenient. Traditional methods such as typing, texting, or using an electrolarynx, though functional, come with their own set of challenges, ranging from slow communication speeds to requiring extensive training. The UCLA team's device, however, promises a more seamless and intuitive form of communication. By sticking directly onto the skin of the neck, it captures the subtle muscle movements associated with speech, which are then processed by an AI algorithm to generate spoken words with impressive accuracy.

From Concept to Reality

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The device's development was driven by the principle of the magnetoelastic effect, where magnetic nanoparticles embedded in flexible materials alter their magnetic properties as the material stretches. This principle, when applied to the patch in conjunction with copper coils and machine learning technology, allows for the precise capture and translation of muscle movements into electrical signals, and subsequently, speech. In tests involving eight participants, the device demonstrated a more than 90% accuracy in recognizing and translating specific phrases, marking a significant milestone in assistive speech technology.

Looking Ahead: Implications and Next Steps

While the current prototype shows immense promise, the researchers acknowledge that further development is needed. The device's vocabulary is currently limited to the phrases it has been trained on, and personalization is necessary to accommodate the unique vocal characteristics of each user. Expanding the device's vocabulary and refining its algorithm for individual use are critical next steps towards making this technology accessible on a larger scale. The success of this project could not only offer a new lease on life for those with voice disorders but also pave the way for future innovations in assistive communication technologies.

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What company provided an update that would create the precise imitation of a user's voice to read texts?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

What company provided an update that would create the precise imitation of a user's voice to read texts?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

Companies like Voiceitt and Ava focus on speech recognition for non-standard speech, integrating their solutions into mainstream platforms to assist users with speech disabilities .

Title:

Content: OpenAI's Johansson gaffe pushes voice cloning into spotlight

Law enforcement warned that AI clones could be used to extort money from loved ones over the phone

By AFP

  • Follow us on

Scarlett Johansson voiced an AI character in the film "Her". — Reuters file

Published: Mon 27 May 2024, 7:51 PM

Last updated: Mon 27 May 2024, 7:52 PM

OpenAI was forced to apologise to actor Scarlett Johansson last week for using her voice -- or something very similar -- on its latest chatbot, throwing the spotlight on to voice-cloning tech.

Although OpenAI denied the voice they used was Johansson's, their case was not helped by CEO Sam Altman flagging the new model with a one-word message on social media -- "Her".

Johansson voiced an AI character in the film "Her", which Altman has previously said is his favourite film about the technology.

Right from the start, AI voice cloning has proved problematic.

Last year, British firm Elevenlabs went viral for all the wrong reasons when it released its voice-cloning software.

Internet pranksters immediately began pushing out deepfaked celebrities -- Harry Potter star Emma Watson was shown reading Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Law enforcement warned that AI clones could be used to extort money from loved ones over the phone.

The technology has developed rapidly in the past year becoming far more realistic and nuanced.

Danish entrepreneur Victor Riparbelli, CEO of British AI firm Synthesia, told AFP it was largely down to a program called Tortoise that was released two years ago.

The program's developers threw thousands of hours of voice data into their model in an unstructured way and discovered it not only learnt what to say but how to say it.

"That was a pretty big paradigm shift," Riparbelli said on the sidelines of last week's VivaTech conference in Paris.

Tortoise was an open source program and Elevenlabs was the first to go to market using it.

OpenAI uses similar systems though they do not release any details.

Much of the controversy around voice cloning has focused on concerns over people misusing the software.

But the claim against OpenAI is unusual because it is the company itself accused of playing fast and loose.

"It was very unfortunate that OpenAI did that -- really not very good," Katya Laine, CEO of TALKR.ai, told AFP at VivaTech.

"If they actually cloned her voice without her knowing then I think that's very very bad," said Riparbelli.

The two entrepreneurs are among hundreds harnessing AI voice programs for uses that they argue will make companies more efficient.

Laine's firm provides virtual voice assistants -- essentially AI customer service agents.

She said her firm's system could now resolve 25 to 30 percent of calls without any human involvement.

Synthesia specialises in video avatars, which Riparbelli said allowed any office worker to turn text or slides into a video performed by a realistic AI.

Both Riparbelli and Laine allow their clients to use their own avatars, off-the-shelf products or those supplied by the likes of OpenAI and Elevenlabs.

Riparbelli said Synthesia used actors whose likenesses and voices were licensed for two years with an option to renew after the initial period.

The problems arise if actors' voices are used without their consent.

The fiasco overshadowed a developer conference in Paris last week when OpenAI was showing off a suite of new tools.

In front of a big screen in an auditorium, Romain Huet, OpenAI's Head of Developer Experience, breezily chatted into his phone.

Seconds later, his short voice sample had been processed and could be heard commentating over a generated video -- in five languages.

The demonstration showed how quickly the field is moving, but the headlines had already been written.

The Washington Post asked in a newsletter "How dumb is OpenAI?", other commentators were suggesting wunderkind Altman was nothing more than a huckster.

Nonetheless, Riparbelli was open to OpenAI's argument that they had used another actor who just sounded liked Johansson.

"If it's not her but someone who sounds a lot like her... where do you draw that line," Riparbelli asked.

"If they're not allowed to use someone who sounds a lot like her, then it sets a very odd precedent."

More news from World

Title:

Content: SAG-AFTRA Just Scored You an Animation Win

SAG-AFTRA members, listen up! You just dodged a bullet (or an AI takeover, to be more precise) and scored a major win with your new contracts. Let’s break it down. This week, SAG-AFTRA members overwhelmingly approved the new 2023 Television Animation Agreement and its counterpart, the 2023 Basic Cable Animation Agreement. Basically, these fancy contracts lay out the rules of the game for voice actors in the world of animation – things like pay, benefits, and working conditions. And guess what? This time around, they come with some seriously cool AI protections.

Remember that epic 118-day strike last year? Yeah, that wasn’t for nothing. SAG-AFTRA fought hard, and those gains are trickling down to animation voice actors. The new contracts include a bunch of benefits, but the real showstopper is the language around artificial intelligence (AI).

Here’s the thing: AI is getting creepy-good at mimicking human voices. That’s fantastic for some things, but not so fantastic for voice actors who could be replaced by a computer program. SAG-AFTRA saw this coming, and they put a stop to it in these new contracts. The new contracts make it crystal clear that voice actors are, well, actual people. The legalese says “only humans” can be voice actors. That’s a good start. But it gets even better.

There are also mandatory meetings between voice actors and producers to discuss how AI is being used. This way, everyone’s on the same page, and actors can keep an eye on how this AI stuff is developing. Plus, there are rules about how these AI voice replications can be used. For example, if your voice is used to create a digital character, you gotta get paid for it – no ifs, ands, or buts.

Here’s another cool thing: if a studio uses your voice performance to create a foreign language version of a show, you get paid for that too. Basically, SAG-AFTRA is making sure voice actors get their fair share, no matter how their voice is being used. The head honcho at SAG-AFTRA, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, is pretty pumped about the whole thing. He says this new contract is a win-win, with better pay, more holidays, and those all-important AI protections.

So, SAG-AFTRA members, breathe a sigh of relief! Your jobs are safe from robot overlords (for now). And with these new contracts in place, you can get back to doing what you do best: bringing animated characters to life with your awesome voices.

Source: Deadline

About Anthony Whyte

Content Manager | Senior Editor | Daydreamer | Keep your head on a swivel and don't blink

These tools not only enhance inclusivity but also support language acquisition by providing learners with realistic, customizable audio materials .

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How AI will reshape the music industry, according to 5 entertainment lawyers

This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

  • AI-generated music is set to create a slew of new legal challenges for artists and rights holders.
  • Copyright and right of publicity laws are top of mind for entertainment attorneys as AI songs surge.
  • Here are four key takeaways from a recent panel on AI music hosted by the law firm Manatt.

AI-generated tracks simulating artists like Drake and The Weeknd have spread across social media in recent weeks, forcing record labels, publishers, and streaming platforms to reckon with its potential business impact on musicians.

Some artists like Grimes are embracing the technology by setting up AI content-creation tools in an attempt to profit from the use of their voices. Others, such as Ice Cube, are rejecting the technology outright.

Regardless of artists' views, adoption of the technology is on the rise. Entertainment lawyers are planning strategies for how they can protect their clients, including using existing tech designed to detect and enforce copyright protections under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, and invoking right of publicity laws.

"Music is unfortunately a canary in a coal mine sometimes with new technology," said Jordan Bromley, entertainment group leader at Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP, speaking on a May 9 panel hosted by the firm.

Manatt's panel included Bromley; his colleagues Nathaniel Bach and Sarah Moses; Mitch Glazier, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America; and Jeffrey Bennett, the general counsel for the Hollywood actors and music artists union SAG-AFTRA.

Here are four main takeaways on the legal and business challenges of AI in music called out by the panelists:

1. Understanding AI training models will be important for enforcing copyright law

Technology exists today to identify copyright violations in songs after they are released.

The Verge reported that Universal Music Group used DMCA detection tools to submit a takedown request for an AI-generated track imitating Drake and The Weeknd that included a traceable tag from the producer Metro Boomin, for example.

But the precise manner that AI-generated music, trained on a human artist's body of work, could violate copyright laws is still being defined.

"We don't always have information about how a particular AI song is created and how the software works," Manatt's Bach said. "Figuring out where the rubber meets the road there in terms of the internal working processes, what was done by the AI, what was done with the human, and for what purpose, is going to be really central."

The copyright rules surrounding AI training models are currently being litigated in other parts of the art world. The company Getty Images and several visual artists have separately sued AI image generators like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and Stability AI around alleged use of their works in training programs.

During Manatt's panel, RIAA's Mitch Glazier raised the idea that an AI model trained on existing songs should legally be defined as a mechanical reproduction, which would require a license.

2. Right of publicity may play an important role in AI legal cases

Right of publicity laws, which protect an individual's right to control the commercial use of their personal characteristics, could be a useful tool for lawyers looking to protect artists from AI-generated imitations.

If a song that includes an AI-generated voice that mimics a well-known artist is making money, it may violate right of publicity laws in certain states.

"You have to look at what is the intent and commercial benefit to the person who is putting it out, and then what is the commercial consequence to the market itself and to the artist on the other works that they have out in the marketplace," RIAA's Glazier said.

Because right of publicity laws are written at the state level, they can be more time consuming to enforce and aren't a perfect solution, the attorneys said.

"It's sort of a patchwork of state laws," SAG-AFTRA's Bennett said. "It's time to take it out and see what we can do with it."

3. Streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube will play a big role in AI's future

The sheer volume of AI songs spit out onto streaming platforms could create detection challenges for rights holders. Music platforms like Spotify and YouTube could set limits on how much AI music spreads, the attorneys said.

"Even if we get the tools, we need to think about enforcement very carefully, because this is a whole new game of whack-a-mole," Manatt's Bromley said.

Separately, the business incentives between the platforms and rights holders may not be aligned.

Some streaming apps may push to add AI-generated tracks to their libraries as a way to cut costs by reducing the royalty payments due to human artists, record labels, and publishers.

"If you're a [digital streaming platform] and you want to add your bottom line, you create AI technology that can make functional music and you throw all that on your playlists and you shift 10% of total content costs to your bottom line," Bromley said. "If a company wants to work with the music business and be on the right side of history, they won't do that."

Record labels are already looking for ways to regulate how streaming platforms work with AI tools. Universal Music Group sent letters in March to Spotify and Apple Music requesting that they block artificial-intelligence companies from using their catalogs to train AI models, Billboard reported.

4. AI isn't inherently bad, and could spark new creative work in music

While much of the conversation in Manatt's panel centered on the risks that AI presents to the music industry, there were a few notes of optimism about how the technology could benefit musicians.

"The other side of this coin is this is a great creative tool if embraced properly and used appropriately and responsibly," Bromley said.

AI-generated works that share earnings with an artist, such as Grimes' Elf.tech tool, could end up creating a new revenue line for performers. Universal Music Group announced on Tuesday a partnership with AI-music startup Endel to help its artists and labels create "soundscapes for daily activities like sleep, relaxation, and focus by harnessing the power of AI."

"If you look at history, those who have decided to become partners and work with the music community have thrived with the music community," RIAA's Glazier said. "Those who have decided that they're going to use legal loopholes and try to pay less, or pay nothing, you don't really hear about them much today."

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Title:

Content: Voiceitt Announces CEO Transition

Published: Sep. 14, 2023 at 9:30 AM CDT|Updated: 45 minutes ago

Alyson Pace Appointed Chief Executive Officer, Effective Immediately

Focus on Sales, Market Expansion and Next Generation Technology to Unlock Voiceitt's Commercial Growth

TEL AVIV, Israel and STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Voiceitt, a leading provider of speech recognition for non-standard speech, announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Alyson Pace, formerly Director at Cisco, as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Alyson Pace succeeds Danny Weissberg, Co-Founder, who has stepped down as CEO. Mr. Weissberg will remain involved to ensure a smooth transition, and serve as a strategic advisor and Director of the company.

Alyson joins Voiceitt from Cisco, where she served as Director of Strategy, Business Development and Partnerships in the Collaboration business.

"Co-Founder and CEO Danny Weissberg has done a remarkable job building the technological foundation of Voiceitt. In Alyson Pace, Danny has found a partner who can take the business to the next stage, bringing this incredible productivity tool to populations that have historically been left behind. On behalf of the Investors and the Board of Directors of Voiceitt, we are thrilled that Alyson will bring her leadership skills, business acumen and industry relationships to bear as our new CEO. Her addition is a grand slam for the Company," said Karl Anderson, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Viking Maccabee Ventures. "We are equally excited to welcome Danny to the Board as a Director where he will continue to provide important strategic guidance to the company."

The announcement follows the launch of Voiceitt's next-generation technology, which supports spontaneous speech recognition for people with speech disabilities. In addition to a browser-based application employing the next-generation technology, which is available to end users via bulk license sales, Voiceitt also offers an API that enables seamless integration of its tech with any voice interface, making these products accessible to users with disabilities, degenerative disease or brain injuries, developmental disorders, aging-related speech changes, and even challenging dialects. Early integrations of the next-generation technology include Webex, announced with Cisco in May 2023, a unique partnership enabling people with speech impairments to speak and be understood during virtual meetings through innovative captioning and transcription leveraging Voiceitt's AI on the leading collaboration platform.

"I am deeply inspired by the vision, dedication, and tireless work that has brought the company to this turning point," says Ms. Pace. "It is among the greatest honors of my professional life to join Danny on this journey, and to pick up the reins as CEO, joining co-founder, Sara Smolley, and the team as we bring Voiceitt into its next stage of impact, commercialization, and growth."

Ms. Pace added, "Voiceitt, which was founded with the mission to help people with speech disabilities live more connected lives, is emerging as a leading provider of voice AI for non-standard speech.  The underlying technology, speech recognition based on cutting edge proprietary automatic speech recognition algorithms, has moved from science fiction to a real, working product. The business opportunities sit at the heart of a revolution in conversational AI, as well as a paradigm shift in inclusion and accessibility. There is no better timing."

"As Voiceitt enters a new phase, Alyson's exceptional track record, encompassing her time at Cisco and her experience developing and commercializing impactful voice AI, positions her well to bring Voiceitt successfully into its next stage of growth," said Mr. Weissberg. "With Alyson's leadership, Voiceitt is set to thrive. Thanks to my co-founders Stas Tiomkin and Sara Smolley, our amazing team, and our strategic partners and investors, we've developed continuous speech recognition for non-standard speakers, positioned uniquely in one of the most dynamic areas of AI, and poised to help our partners provide inclusive voice experiences and products that meet the needs of all customers. As ever, I remain dedicated to Voiceitt's mission and to making a difference in the world while achieving remarkable success."

About Alyson Pace
Alyson Pace is a dedicated entrepreneur turned corporate executive leader. Before her second tour at Cisco in 2018, Alyson was an early executive at Voicea, a voice AI tech startup, and a leader at Webex, both with successful acquisitions. Her leadership has emphasized exceptional user experience and technical and GTM partnerships, including sales or channel enablement and OEM commercial deals, which led to the company's acquisition by Cisco.

At Cisco, Ms. Pace led the M&A and integration practice for the company's Collaboration business unit to accelerate time to value and provide world-class employee experience. As part of Corporate Development at Cisco Investments, she managed multiple practices for the acceleration and scaling of Cisco portfolio startups' businesses, accelerating time-to-market and revenue. Ms. Pace's career is marked by her passion for disruptive technologies, and her capabilities to bring complex technological products to market, from ideation to scale, and to build early-stage companies from startups to successful enterprises.

About Voiceitt
Voiceitt was founded with the mission to apply its machine learning and speech recognition technologies to help people with speech disabilities resulting from stroke, degenerative disease, or developmental disorders live more connected, independent lives. Its proprietary automatic speech recognition (ASR) makes voice AI accessible — enabling people with speech impairments to interact with mainstream voice technologies, communicate by voice, and be understood.

Voiceitt has been highlighted in international media, including Forbes, The New York Times, and the BBC. Investors include Cisco Investments, the Amazon Alexa Fund, AARP, XTX Markets, and Microsoft's M12. Voiceitt was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Israel with a subsidiary in Stamford, CT.

Media Contact:
Sara A Smolley
Co-Founder & Vice President, Partnerships
sara@voiceitt.com

View original content to download multimedia:

SOURCE Voiceitt, Inc.

The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc.

How will educational institutions benefit from developing AI voice audio content for languages learners?

How will educational institutions benefit from developing AI voice audio content for languages learners?

**Scams and Malicious Use** The accessibility and realism of AI voice cloning have also enabled its exploitation for fraudulent purposes.

**Scams and Malicious Use** The accessibility and realism of AI voice cloning have also enabled its exploitation for fraudulent purposes.

**Scams and Malicious Use** The accessibility and realism of AI voice cloning have also enabled its exploitation for fraudulent purposes.

There have been documented cases where scammers used cloned voices to impersonate family members, such as a mother being deceived by a fake kidnapping call using her daughter’s cloned voice .

Title:

Content: After 148 days, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) resolved its strike against several major Hollywood studios. As writers leave the picket lines, a new labor agreement will seek to limit the use and training of generative artificial intelligence tools in Hollywood, setting precedent for future labor agreements in a wide variety of industries.

As of Sept. 27, 2023, the WGA, a labor union representing American screenwriters, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing major television and film production companies, reached a tentative agreement to govern their relationship for the next three years. This pivotal agreement ends a strike that halted around $10 billion worth of media productions in 2023.

In July, in the wake of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) reaching a resolution with the AMPTP, McGuireWoods published an article discussing this strike and other labor force friction involving AI — recognizing that "Employers can mitigate employee disenfranchisement risk by developing thoughtful AI policies and safeguards, while at the same time, promoting transparency and committing to develop and use AI responsibly." While fears around artificial intelligence (AI) contributed significantly to WGA's strike, safeguards around AI contributed significantly to WGA's resolution.

The AI-Focused Strike

Among more traditional labor pain points, like wages and benefits, the use of generative AI was an integral part of the WGA's demands. Because generative AI can generate new text based on a universe of existing material, many writers feared that the technology would render their creativity and profession obsolete. WGA firmly maintained in its demands that:

  • AI "can't write or rewrite literary material.
  • AI "can't be used as source material."
  • Agreement-covered material "can't be used to train AI."

The Negotiated Agreement

The WGA has been tentatively successful in obtaining its AI-related demands. The Memorandum of Agreement for the 2023 WGA Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement (MOA) includes a section regarding generative artificial intelligence, or GAI, which states that neither AI nor GAI can be considered a "writer" and, "therefore, any written material produced by traditional AI or GAI shall not be considered literary material." The MOA also clearly states that writers cannot be forced to use GAI to create what otherwise would be considered "literary material" if written by an individual. If studios ask writers to use GAI-produced material as the basis for writing or rewriting "literary material," they must disclose to the writer that the material was produced by GAI.

GAI-produced material also will not be considered "source material," meaning the writer's compensation, writing credits or other rights cannot be modified even when using GAI-produced material. The MOA provides the following example:

Company furnishes Writer A with written material substantially in the form of a screenplay produced by GAI which has not been previously published or exploited and assigns no other materials. Company instructs Writer A to rewrite the GAI-produced written material. Company must pay Writer A no less than the minimum compensation for a screenplay under Article 13.A.1.a.(2), as well as no less than the amount specified in Article 13.A.1.a.(9), "Additional Compensation Screenplay — No Assigned Material." The GAI-produced written material is not considered source material when determining writing credit to Writer A and will not disqualify Writer A from eligibility for separated rights.

The MOA is not without reciprocity, however. If writers choose to utilize GAI in their work, they must obtain consent from the company to do so and must further abide by any company policies governing GAI programs. And while GAI programs that produce written material are off limits, the MOA outlines that writers can still be required to use other forms of AI within their work — for example, programs that "detect potential copyright infringement or plagiarism."

Most critically, both parties maintain leeway to assert their rights in the future, given the fast-changing landscape of the law and GAI technology. The MOA specifically notes that a writer is not barred "from asserting that the exploitation of their literary material to train, inform, or in any other way develop GAI software or systems, is within such rights and is not otherwise permitted under applicable law." This is particularly relevant, as the limits of copyright and other intellectual property protections for AI-assisted inventions remain a hot issue.

More to Come...

The WGA is not alone in seeking to balance the benefits and risks of AI tools. A recent survey from McKinsey & Company reported that, while use of AI tools has grown rapidly during 2023, organizations also are carefully considering the negatives — with 20% of responding companies affirming that they are implementing policies and procedures to monitor AI risk. Alongside concerns of hallucination, potential bias and intellectual property issues — and risks presented by state law developments and regulatory action — employers implementing AI tools should continue to assess their impact on a company's labor force and the benefits of a responsible use policy.

There is more to come from Hollywood and other creative professions. Although the WGA and DGA have left the picket lines, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has yet to reach an agreement with the AMPTP, and this group has made its own GAI-related demands to limit the digital manipulation and replication of performers' voices and likeness. Like the AI-focused resolution for writers, an AI-focused resolution for actors and performers will continue to set precedent for employers' labor agreements and potential safeguards for AI use. Stay tuned....

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Title:

Content: "This assault on human creativity must be stopped": Pearl Jam, Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish and 200 more artists call for protections against threat of AI

A group of over 200 artists has come together to sign an open letter urging tech companies to "stop devaluing music" and cease the use of artificial intelligence to infringe on artists' rights.

The Artist Rights Alliance, a group of artists that includes Pearl Jam, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj and Zayn Malik, has shared a statement demanding that AI developers, technology companies and digital music services pledge that they will not "develop or deploy AI music-generation technology, content or tools that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists" or deny them "fair compensation" for their work.

"Some platforms and developers are employing AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rightsholders," the statement reads. "When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods."

The statement goes on to describe how tech companies are training AI models on the work of artists' without their permission, efforts that the Artists Rights Alliance believes are "directly aimed at replacing the work of human artists" with AI-generated sounds and images that will dilute the royalty pools paid out to working musicians and recording artists.

"For many working musicians, artists and songwriters who are just trying to make ends meet, this would be catastrophic," the statement continues.

The letter does not demand a wholesale ban on the use of AI in music, conceding that the potential to advance human creativity when used responsibly.

Concerns over the threat that generative artificial intelligence poses artists and musicians have grown rapidly in recent years as AI-powered tools and platforms have advanced in sophistication. AI music generators such as Stable Audio and Google's MusicFX are now capable of generating entire tracks on demand, leading many to question whether music produced by this technology could gain popularity, directing royalty payments away from human artists and into the pockets of tech companies.

Last year, AI voice cloning software was used to mimic the voices of Drake and The Weeknd for a viral track that racked up thousands of streams before being taken down from streaming platforms.

Following the incident, Universal Music Group issued a statement voicing its concerns over the training of generative AI using the music of artists belonging to the label. Earlier this year, Tennessee became the first US state to introduce legislation protecting musicians from unauthorized voice cloning.

Read the full letter from the Artist Rights Alliance.

Revisit our 2023 feature on AI voice cloning.

Tech Editor

I'm the Tech Editor for MusicRadar, working across everything from artist interviews to product news to tech tutorials. I love electronic music and I'm endlessly fascinated by the tools we use to make it. When I'm not behind my laptop keyboard, you'll find me behind a MIDI keyboard, carefully crafting the beginnings of another project that I'll ultimately abandon to the creative graveyard that is my overstuffed hard drive.

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Ava CEO Thibault Duchemin Talks Being A CODA, New Ava Voice, More In New Interview

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I met up with Ava co-founder and CEO Thibault Duchemin at his place here in San Francisco earlier this week to catch up and talk tech for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Like me, Duchemin is a CODA—child of deaf adults—and is one of only a few I personally know to be fellow CODAs. It’s a unique brotherhood, as Duchemin and I spent the better part of our hour together discussing the shared experiences of living with Deaf parents. CODAs are special insofar as we literally live between two worlds, hearing and deaf, and much of that straddling involves communication. Being a CODA oftentimes means being the live-in, unpaid interpreter for your parent(s), which means you’re the conduit through which your parents access the world. Learning sign language is not only important as a means to communicate at home, but it’s arguably more important because it’s necessary everywhere else too.

As CODAs, it’s easy for people like Duchemin and I to see how and where modern-day technology could have come in really handy decades ago when we still lived at home. The smartphone obviously represents the truest illustration of this, as its communicative capabilities from iMessage to FaceTime and beyond have given people around the world, Deaf or not, the ability to communicate in real-time with unparalleled fidelity. Apple devices such as the iPhone and iPads are popular with the Deaf community for this very reason; FaceTime in particular is a tool with which many Deaf people communicate, especially since Apple expanded the number of people who can participate in group calls.

In an exclusive interview with me recently conducted via videoconference, Duchemin, whose company Ava makes AI-powered captioning software for iOS, Mac, Android, and Windows, said accessibility has come a long way for Deaf people as technology has risen in prominence and ubiquity in the last several years. Prior to that, he said, Deaf people were “really in a far-from-ideal situation” in terms of access to communication, particularly in terms of captioning. As capable as technology has become, Duchemin said it’s important not to treat it as a panacea; it needs to be “focused and disciplined” in order to positively influence the world. Accessibility for disabled people, he added, should be an inalienable right so everyone can use technology to its fullest.

My discussion with Duchemin coincided with the San Francisco-based Ava’s announcement of a “groundbreaking new technology” called Ava Voice. The company describes the technology as giving Deaf and hard-of-hearing people the ability to have two-way conversations between a deaf and hearing person. When combined with Ava Scribe, which enables accurate and affordable real-time captions, Ava Voice allows, as Ava said, to be “literally heard” by transforming text into naturally-sounding voices. This is a notable achievement for Duchemin and Ava, as the technology builds upon and exceeds the FCC’s new rules, set to go into effect in the coming months, that mandate captioning for live video must be “accurate, synchronized, and displayed at a speed that is readable and comprehensible” while organizations also are required to provide text-to-speech functionality for any textual elements. The overarching goal of this regulation is to make communication more accessible and inclusive for people who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Duchemin told me while popular videoconferencing apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams should be commended for supporting captions, it’s been his experience that accuracy and intelligibility oftentimes is lacking. It isn’t possible to call up a professional captioner or interpreter in the middle of a meeting, after all. And it isn’t solely Deaf people either; Duchemin pointed to people who have speech impediments like stuttering or accents, which can be difficult for the AI processor to decipher. Ava was built mainly to service the needs of one community, but the relevancy of the technology extends far beyond deaf individuals. This is true for Duchemin himself, a native Frenchman with a thick accent that can be hard to understand. Ava, Duchemin said, wants to make its own contribution towards making communication easier and more equitable for all. That’s Ava’s modus operandi in a nutshell.

“There’s a lot of excitement right now,” Duchemin said. “We’ll play our role in this field.”

Duchemin was keen to give recognition to who he called a “key member” of the Ava team in Alexandre Bécourt. Bécourt is Ava’s founding engineer and mobile engineering lead who helped shepherd Ava from conception to fruition on iOS. He, Duchemin said, helped bring Ava Voice to life. Duchemin and team are grateful for his contributions.

“Skinner [Cheng, Ava’s co-founder and CTO] and myself have worked alongside in the office for years, and I remember him juggling between all these apps to communicate,” Bécourt said about building Ava Voice in a statement provided to me. “What really helps Deaf people I realize, is to have access to great technology all-in one place, not scattered around. And this technology needs to see the world like they do. Ava Voice will help you choose a voice by describing how they sound, as it won’t assume you can hear like other text-to-speech apps do. Or the feature we have that helps you flash words you typed to attract the attention of a busy waiter. Being very thoughtful in approaching our Ava apps was essential for our team to truly build a companion for our users.”

Looking towards the future, Duchemin hearkened back to the past, telling me the rapidity with which technology advances is again something he could’ve used growing up with his parents. The ever-burgeoning capabilities of artificial intelligence, he said, will allow Ava to commensurately become more capable over time. He can envision a day in the not-too-distant future when an AI interpreter will be able to co-exist in a Zoom call and offer as much fluency and fidelity as the professional but pricey human interpretation services. Technology, especially nowadays with AI, is helping to break so many barriers, but Duchemin reiterated its crucial to remain focused and disciplined on harnessing it for genuine good like democratizing communication.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and law enforcement agencies have issued warnings about the use of AI-generated voices in scams, extortion, and misinformation campaigns, highlighting the urgent need for public vigilance and regulatory intervention .

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Content: Generative AI and US copyright law are on a collision course

The way in which US copyright law interacts with the burgeoning field of generative AI remains nebulous, and could cause problems for generative AI training that will come to a head in court cases.

US copyright law has yet to catch up to the numerous challenges posed by the wildfire adoption of generative AI, and the first real movement on major legal questions is likely to come from upcoming trials.

One of those key questions is the copyright status of works generated by artificial intelligence — for example, whether a Midjourney image that the system generated in response to a user prompt is protected by copyright, and, if so, who owns that copyright.

No one owns copyrights on AI-generated work

The answer, for the moment, is that nobody owns the copyright on AI-generated works, because nobody can. The US Copyright Office has taken the position that human authorship is required for copyright to exist on a work, and that no such authorship exists in the case of AI-created writing or images — neither the creator of the AI nor the provider of the prompt used to generate a particular work “owns” that output.

That’s unlikely to change due to legislation or administrative action in the near future, according to Ron Lazebnik, clinical associate professor at Fordham University School of Law. Litigation, however, could challenge that standard, he noted.

“Either someone tries to register something with the copyright office, who says no, and then they sue challenging that denial, or alternatively, someone who may have used an AI but never let the copyright office know that, they become the plaintiff,” Lazebnik said. “Beyond that, it’s not clear on how we would be able to get a court to say whether or not an AI generated work is attributed to the person who prompted the AI.”

It's within the Copyright Office’s purview to change that rule, according to Philippa Loengard, executive director of the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts at Columbia Law School — but she warned that such action remains unlikely.

“My guess is that AI regulation won’t start with copyright,” she said. “I think, and I could be wrong, that there are so many issues being discussed in the realm of AI that I’m not sure that changing the requirements of human authorship is going to be of paramount importance.”

The larger issue for AI in terms of copyright law is likely to be the concept of fair use, particularly as it applies to the training data used to create the large language models (LLMs) underpinning generative AI.

Fair use, in brief, is a defense to copyright claims written into federal law. The four factors that courts have to consider when deciding whether a particular use of copyright material without permission is “fair use,” are the character and purpose of the use (educational or other not-for-profit use is much more likely to be deemed fair than commercial use), the nature of the original work, the amount of the original work used, and the market effect on the original work.

Copyright a stumbling block for AI model training

Given those factors, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the lawsuits against companies like OpenAI have already begun. Most notably, a group of authors that includes comedian and writer Sarah Silverman sued OpenAI and Meta in July over the company’s use of their books to train ChatGPT.

The core issue in that lawsuit is the use of a data set called “BookCorpus,” which, the plaintiffs say, contained their copyright material. OpenAI and Meta are likely to argue that the market effect on Silverman’s and others works is negligible, and that the “character and purpose” of the use is different than that which prompted the writing of the books in the first place, while the plaintiffs are likely to highlight the for-profit nature of Meta and OpenAI’s use, as well as the use of entire works in training data.

Precedent, however, may be on the AI companies’ side — the Google Books case, which was a fair use action brought by the Author’s Guild of America against Google’s mass book digitization project in 2005. The case’s history is complicated, including appeals went on for a decade, and was ultimately settled in Google’s favor.

Whether that’s likely to be predictive, however, is debatable, according to Loengard, and much could depend on a judge’s willingness to challenge a large, profitable industry.

“By the time it ended, Google Books had become a tool of many researchers,” she said. “So there’s this idea that the cat’s out of the bag — and of course, the court wouldn’t say this out loud, and I’m not saying this is what they did, but they could look at it and say that once something has entered mainstream commerce that it’s harder to reel it back in and regulate it.”

Obviously derivative works could be another copyright battleground for the AI industry, given that the technology has already been used to produce convincing imitations of popular singers and songwriters.  The right of publicity — a different legal concept covering the rights to a person’s name, image and likeness, could become a cause of action for the performance itself — i.e., the sound of Taylor Swift’s voice. But copyright could still become an issue if the underlying song is sufficiently similar to one written by Swift.

“If it’s a song close to what those artists might be expecting to produce, [copyright law could be implicated], in theory, depending on how close AI comes to writing a song that resembles one that that artist could write,” said Lazebnik.

The unsettled state of play around AI and copyright law is not simply a US phenomenon, although most countries have yet to pass detailed legislation around it. The EU’s AI Act, as well as frameworks for more general AI regulation passed by the US and China, do not change the confused state of play around copyright issues. One country that has done so is Japan, which clarified in June that the use of copyright works for AI training is permitted, even for commercial purposes.

But active regulation of these issues may still be far off in the US, according to the experts.

“The legislature hasn’t created a new carve-out in copyright in quite some time,” said Lazebnik. “If they think fair use isn’t sufficient and that it’s something they want to encourage, they might amend our laws, but at the moment, they would have to see an appellate court saying ‘no, this isn’t fair use.’”

“[Congress] has no pending legislation at all,” noted Loengard. “Everyone is studying this, nobody has come to any conclusions about it.”

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What are some risks regarding AI voice clning?

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**Legal Implications and Regulatory Landscape** The legal landscape surrounding AI voice cloning is rapidly evolving in response to its growing use and associated risks.

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**Legal Implications and Regulatory Landscape** The legal landscape surrounding AI voice cloning is rapidly evolving in response to its growing use and associated risks.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that AI-generated voice calls fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), requiring telemarketers to obtain prior express consent before using such technology in robocalls .

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Content: The Future Is Here
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AI This Week: Can AI's Environmental Impact Be Justified?

A new report shows the massive energy needs of AI systems. Plus: a look at how the music industry is fighting AI voice clones.

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Headlines This Week

  • A new report from Politico suggests a “billionaire-backed network” of Silicon Valley-linked AI “advisors” are working to control the regulatory agenda in Washington D.C. Boy, I sure wish stuff like that were illegal instead of just business-as-usual.
  • Despite apparently having lobbying money aplenty, it looks like the AI industry is still struggling to monetize some of its platforms. The Wall Street Journal reports that some major AI platforms, like Microsoft’s Github Copilot, have been hemorrhaging money.
  • Last but not least: A newly introduced draft bill would institute protections for musical artists against AI. We spoke with a music industry executive about what the policy could mean for his business.

The Top Story: AI’s Growing Environmental Impact

One of the ongoing problems connected to the AI industry is just how much power it takes to run its systems. The pursuit of enough juice to run the high-octane algorithms behind apps like Bard, Bing, and ChatGPT is causing concern even among AI’s biggest proponents. Now, a new study shows the electrical resources needed for the growing AI industry could make its environmental impact even worse than previously thought.

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The study, authored by Alex de Vries, who is a PhD candidate at the VU Amsterdam School of Business and Economics, claims that the AI industry’s energy needs may soon match those of a small country. “Given the expected production in the coming few years, by 2027 newly manufactured AI devices will be responsible for as much electricity consumption as my home country, the Netherlands,” de Vries told Insider this week. “This is also in the same range as the electricity consumption of countries like Sweden or Argentina.”

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While the rate of electricity consumption in the tech industry has remained relatively steady for years, de Vries says that the advent of the AI chatbot wars between tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI, may have spawned a new era. De Vries’ study looks specifically at the electricity consumption of the AI sector as it applies to something called the “inference phase” of AI production. While most environmental impact studies have so far focused on the amount of energy it takes to train large language models like GPT-4, less attention has been paid to “inferencing,” which is the process by which language models produce new information as the result of prompts. This phase of energy consumption can be massive and, sometimes, accounts for a majority of energy expended during the AI life cycle, de Vries writes. Due to the potential ballooning nature of AI energy needs over the next several years, the scholar argues that developers “focus [not only] on optimizing AI, but also to critically consider the necessity of using AI in the first place.”

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De Vries’ study, like a number of other prominent environmental impact studies that have been published recently, begs the question: in an age of climate change and accelerating environmental distress, can generative AI really be justified? I mean, do we really need ChatGPT, automated email-writing, and AI stickers? Or are we killing the environment needlessly for too little in trade off?

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At best, these platforms offer increased convenience for consumers and some cost savings for corporations, but—for now—that’s about it. Much of the mystification around AI has helped hide the fact that generative AI technologies aren’t—in many cases—particularly revolutionary and, in some cases, aren’t even new. Sure, there are some novel scientific applications of AI that, once refined, could have a major impact. But it would be hard to argue that those applications are the ones getting the lion’s share of attention or resources. Mostly, it’s stuff like ChatGPT that hogs the spotlight (and venture capital).

When viewed through the lens of the technology’s massive environmental impact, it seems hard to justify what is little more than an over-hyped form of content automation. Better deepfakes aren’t worth killing the planet over.

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The Interview: Mitch Glazier on the Music Industry’s Fraught Relationship to AI

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This week we spoke with Mitch Glazier, the Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, which lobbies on behalf of the music industry. RIAA is supporting a newly introduced piece of legislation that seeks to institute legal protections against the use of AI to replicate the visual or audio likenesses of artists. In recent months, there’s been  an explosion of AI “deepfake” content that blatantly rips off well-known musicians and celebrities. The  Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act, which is currently a discussion draft bill, would enshrine a number of legal protections for artists who don’t want their visual or audio likenesses used in unauthorized deepfakes. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

What role did RIAA have in connection to this bill and what do you hope this bill achieves?

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We were one of several groups that were asked to give input so that they could develop the bill. SAG-AFTRA was also heavily involved. The idea was to create federal legislation because all of the protections for name, image, likeness and voice are in the states right now—and they’re all different.

What is it about AI that makes it a threat to your industry (the music business)? What’s the problem with this technology?

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The problem really isn’t the technology. AI can be licensed for a variety of great purposes and uses. The problem is when AI is made based on a particular artist’s voice or image without consent, credit, and compensation. Basically, what the bill says is, ‘The technology’s great and if an artist wants to license the use of their essence—their voice, their likeness—that’s they’re choice. But what you can’t do is clone their voice without their permission.’ It’s just a basic right that exists for all other types of property—and that should exist here. It should be up to the artist to decide whether or not they want to allow you to use their image or their voice.

So it seems like this legislation actually opens the door for more AI music but the idea is that, if a particular artist is involved in an AI or a deepfake production, they would have to get credit and, presumably, get paid, right?

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Well, the bill says “authorized,” so the artist would have to authorize it. If they want to negotiate compensation they can. Some may not want to. But the key is that “authorization” part. The author has to say, “Yes, you can use my voice, my image.” If they don’t say yes, you can’t do it.

What are your hopes for the passage of the bill? It seems like there are some pretty prominent Senators supporting it.

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We’re very optimistic. This issue goes beyond the music and entertainment industry and it goes beyond the issue of art. It relates to every individual’s right to control their own essence, for lack of a better term. We’ve been encouraged by great bipartisan support right off the bat. To get two Democrats and two Republicans—including the chairman of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee (Amy Klobuchar D-Minnesota)—to put out this discussion draft and to do it in a way in which they’re inviting people to respond and come into the conversation, is a great sign.

Catch up on all of Gizmodo’s AI news here, or see all the latest news here. For daily updates, subscribe to the free Gizmodo newsletter.

This empowers state attorneys general to take legal action against voice cloning scams and aims to curb voter suppression and misinformation during elections [291bb2c8-dc94-498b-bebe-a12ec86a63f3_277167094_1].

What are some risks regarding AI voice clning?

The European Union is advancing legislation that includes penalties for violations related to AI development and operation, while Japan’s government panel has called for voluntary protections by AI operators, noting that current laws inadequately protect intellectual property rights against AI technologies .

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Content: Legal Safeguards for Intellectual Property Weak on AI; Japanese Govt Panel Notes Issues, Offers Little Remedy

The draft outline of a government panel’s interim report has acknowledged that Japan’s existing laws are limited in their ability to prevent infringements of intellectual property rights by artificial intelligence technologies. It calls on AI operators to voluntarily make efforts to protect those rights.

The outline approved Thursday by the panel tasked with discussing the protection of intellectual property rights in the era of AI also underlined the importance of providing some compensation to creators and other rights holders, but did not go as far as to call for new legislation governing AI.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi touched on the issue of protecting intellectual property rights during his press conference the same day. “Additional efforts must be promoted through an appropriate combination of laws, technologies and contracts at each stage,” Hayashi said.

When instructed to imitate the painting style of a given artist, generative AI can easily produce a picture that looks like an artwork the artist might have created. Similarly, this technology can easily generate a voice by learning the voices of real-life singers and voice actors.

Creators around the world have become increasingly concerned that their rights could be infringed by AI, which can very easily learn artworks and mimic skills that human creators used their ability and effort to develop.

The draft outline explicitly states that there are instances in which current laws cannot respond to such situations. Abilities nurtured during the creation of artworks, and literary or artistic “styles” that do not lend themselves to precise definitions, fall outside what is protected under the Copyright Law, and the outline explains that the possibility of things such as the “voice” of a voice actor being protected as a form of publicity rights by the law “cannot be said to be high.”

In addition, based on moves to introduce AI regulations in Europe and the United States, the outline states that the “formation of international rules and international standardization might be necessary.”

The European Union has passed AI legislation that includes penalties for violations of AI development and operation rules, and this will start being applied in 2026. By contrast, momentum for crafting a similar legal framework in Japan has not been growing.

A Cabinet Office official said the draft outline was not intended to be a channel “for offering an opinion on creating something new, but rather something arranged based on current laws.”

Uniform measures ‘difficult’

The draft outline also suggested that creators could be protected by way of having “profits returned” in the event that their work is used for learning by AI.

Individual creators and AI operators are not on an equal footing when it comes to bargaining power. Accordingly, the outline called on these operators to establish opportunities to properly adjust and reconcile usage conditions and other details with the creators.

The Copyright Law allows the training of AI models with copyrighted material without permission from copyright holders. However, the outline said that even in these cases it would be “possible” to reach an agreement with copyright holders on providing compensation to them, and that “it could be expected” that AI operators would offer such compensation.

However, the draft outline also stated that establishing “uniform, systematic measures” would be difficult. As things stand, it will be up to operators to take it upon themselves to make efforts on this issue.

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Content: UNESCO calls for regulations on use of GenAI in schools

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) called on governments to regulate the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in education and research.

Publicly available GenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, can produce automated text, images, videos, music and software code. The platforms have evolved rapidly and are already in use by hundreds of millions around the world, including many students.

Such wide-ranging capacities for information processing and knowledge production have potentially huge implications for education, as they replicate the higher-order thinking that constitutes the foundation of human learning.

However, very few countries have policies in place to ensure safe and ethical use of AI tools.

UNESCO has published global Guidance on Generative AI in Education and Research, designed to address the disruptions caused by GenAI technologies.

UNESCO’s guidance suggests immediate steps that can be taken to ensure a human-centric vision for new technology use.

This includes mandating the protection of data privacy and considering an age limit of 13 for their use in the classroom. It also outlines requirements for GenAI providers for ethical and effective use.

The guidance stresses the need for educational institutions to validate GenAI systems on their ethical and pedagogical appropriateness for education.

From the perspective of a human-centred approach, AI tools should be designed to extend or augment human intellectual abilities and social skills – and not undermine them, conflict with them or usurp them.

What is generative AI?

• Generative AI (GenAI) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that automatically generates content in response to prompts written in natural language conversational interfaces.

• Rather than simply curating existing webpages, by drawing on existing content, GenAI actually produces new content.

• The content can appear in formats that comprise all symbolic representations of human thinking: texts written in natural language, images (including photographs to digital paintings and cartoons), videos, music and software code.

• GenAI is trained using data collected from webpages, social media conversations and other online media. It generates its content by statistically analysing the distributions of words, pixels

or other elements in the data that it has ingested and identifying and repeating common patterns (for example, which words typically follow which other words).

• While GenAI can produce new content, it cannot generate new ideas or solutions to real-world challenges, as it does not understand real-world objects or social relations that underpin language.

How generative AI works?

The specific technologies behind GenAI are part of the family of AI technologies called Machine Learning which uses algorithms to enable it to continuously and automatically improve its performance from data.

The type of Machine Learning which has led to many of the advances in AI that we have seen in recent years, such as the use of AI for facial recognition, is known as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), which are inspired by how the human brain works and its synaptic connections between neurons. There are many types of ANNs.

Text generative AI uses a type of ANN known as a General-purpose Transformer, and a type of General-purpose Transformer called a Large Language Model. This is why AI Text GenAI systems are often referred to as Large Language Models (LLMs). The type of LLM used by text GenAI is known as a Generative Pre-trained Transformer, or GPT (hence the ‘GPT’ in ‘ChatGPT’).

Image GenAI and music GenAI typically use a different type of ANN known as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) which can also be combined with Variational Autoencoders. GANs have two parts (two ‘adversaries’) —  the ‘generator’ and the ‘discriminator’. In the case of image GANs, the generator creates a random image in response to a prompt, and the discriminator tries to distinguish between this generated image and real images. The generator then uses the result of the discriminator to adjust its parameters, in order to create another image. The process is repeated, possibly thousands of times, with the generator making more and more realistic images that the discriminator is less and less able to distinguish from real images. For example, a successful GAN trained on a dataset of thousands of landscape photographs might generate new but unreal images of landscapes that are almost indistinguishable from real photographs.

Meanwhile, a GAN trained on a dataset of popular music (or even music by a single artist) might generate new pieces of music that follow the structure and complexity of the original music.

GenAI has a myriad of possible uses

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022, followed by iteratively more sophisticated versions, sent shock waves worldwide, and is fuelling the race among large technology companies to position themselves in the field of GenAI model development.

GenAI has a myriad of possible uses. It can automate information processing and the presentation of outputs across all key symbolic representations of human thinking. It enables the delivery of final outputs by furnishing semi-finished knowledge products.

By freeing humans from some categories of lower-order thinking skills, this new generation of AI tools might have profound implications for how we understand human intelligence and learning.

Millions of people are now using GenAI in their daily lives and the potential of adapting the models to domain-specific AI applications seems unlimited, at least in the years to come.

Controversies around generative AI

GenAI raises multiple immediate concerns related to issues such as safety, data privacy, copyright and manipulation. Some of these are broader risks related to artificial intelligence that have been further exacerbated by GenAI, while others have newly emerged with this latest generation of tools.

i) Use of content without consent

GenAI models are built from large amounts of data (for example text, sounds, code and images) often scraped from the Internet and usually without any owner’s permission. Many image GenAI systems and some code GenAI systems have consequently been accused of violating Intellectual Property Rights. There are several ongoing international legal cases that relate to this issue.

ii) AI-generated content polluting the Internet

Because GPT training data is typically drawn from the Internet, which all too frequently includes discriminatory and other unacceptable language, developers have had to implement what they call ‘guardrails’ to prevent GPT output from being offensive and/or unethical. However, due to the absence of strict regulations and effective monitoring mechanisms, biased materials generated by GenAI are increasingly spreading throughout the Internet, polluting one of the main sources of content or knowledge for most learners across the world.

This is especially important because the material generated by GenAI can appear to be quite accurate and convincing, when often it contains errors and biased ideas. This poses a high risk for young learners who do not have solid prior knowledge of the topic in question. It also poses a recursive risk for future GPT models that will be trained on text scraped from the Internet that GPT models have themselves created which also include their biases and errors.

iii) Lack of understanding of the real world

Text GPTs are sometimes pejoratively referred to as ‘Stochastic Parrots’. While they can produce text that appears convincing, that text often contains errors and can include harmful statements. This all occurs because GPTs only repeat language patterns found in their training data (usually text drawn from the Internet), starting with random (or ‘stochastic’) patterns, and without understanding their meaning – just as a parrot can mimic sounds without actually comprehending what it is saying.

The disconnect between GenAI models ‘appearing’ to understand the text that they use and generate, and the ‘reality’ that they do not understand the language and the real world can lead teachers and students to place a level of trust in the output that it does not warrant. This poses serious risks for future education.

iv) Generating deepfakes

GenAI can be used to alter or manipulate existing images or videos to generate fake ones that are difficult to distinguish from real ones. GenAI is making it increasingly easy to create these ‘deepfakes’ and ‘fake news’. GenAI is making it easier for certain actors to commit unethical, immoral and criminal acts, such as spreading disinformation, promoting hate speech and incorporating the faces of people, without their knowledge or consent, into entirely fake and sometimes compromising films.

v) Ethical concerns

GenAI systems in education may exacerbate existing disparities in access to technology and educational resources, further deepening inequities.

GenAI systems in education may reduce human-to-human interaction and the critical social-emotional aspects of learning.

It may limit learners’ autonomy and agency by providing predetermined solutions or narrowing the range of possible learning experiences. Their long-term impact on young learners’ intellectual development needs to be investigated.

GenAI systems that mimic human interactions may have unknown psychological effects on learners, raising concerns about their cognitive development and emotional well-being, and about the potential for manipulation.

As more sophisticated GenAI systems are being developed and applied in education, they are likely to generate new biases and forms of discrimination based on the training data and methods used by the models, which can result in unknown and potentially harmful outputs.

Intellectual property and copyright issues are at the forefront of legal debates.

Intellectual property and copyright issues are at the forefront of legal debates.

Copyright Office is actively seeking public input on how AI-generated audio intersects with copyright law, particularly regarding the unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train AI models and the copyrightability of AI-generated content [07c8b36c-5fa6-4b63-8959-e0d35aa06bff_850144403_1].

The music industry has seen major record labels sue AI music generators for copyright infringement, arguing that these systems were trained on copyrighted works without permission .

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Content: Promoting responsible AI: Balancing innovation and regulation

As AI technology advances, it is essential to remain mindful of familiar and emerging risks. Education is critical to fostering responsible AI innovation, as understanding the technology and its limitations raises standards and benefits everyone.

In this Help Net Security interview, Nadir Izrael, co-founder & CTO of Armis, discusses the global efforts and variations in promoting responsible AI, as well as the necessary measures to ensure responsible AI innovation in the United States.

What are your initial impressions of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to advance responsible AI? Are they on the right track in managing the risks associated with AI?

The effort to address the issue of responsible AI is a proactive step in the right direction. However, whether they are on the right track in managing the risks associated with AI is still uncertain and will depend on various factors, including finding the right balance between innovation and regulation.

In a free market, there may not be sufficient incentives to prioritize responsible AI research and development. So, it’s commendable that the administration is taking initiative in this regard. It is crucial for the initiatives to strike a balance that allows for innovation and financial reward. Without such flexibility, AI developers may seek ways to bypass the initiatives, potentially undermining their intended purpose.

While the blueprint put forward is a great start, it is merely that, a start. The AI Bill of Rights is laying the foundation for our journey towards a responsible framework regarding the right policy and regulations in this space.

The Administration seeks public input through a Request for Information (RFI) on critical AI issues. What significance does public input hold in shaping the government’s strategy to manage AI risks and harness opportunities? How might this engagement with the general public impact policy decisions?

The administration’s request for public input demonstrates an inclusive approach that recognizes the importance of diverse perspectives. Seeking public input is a vital component as it allows the government to gather insights from a wide range of stakeholders, including industry, academia, civil society, and the general public. This input is instrumental in identifying unique opportunities and risks associated with AI, shaping policies, and establishing regulations that align with the values and concerns of the public.

Engaging with the general public also promotes awareness and understanding of AI-related issues while fostering trust between the government and the public. By involving the public in the development of AI policies and regulations, the government can promote responsible deployment of AI that serves the best interests of society.

The US Department of Education’s report on AI in education highlights both the opportunities and risks associated with AI in teaching and learning. Could you elaborate on some of the risks mentioned in the report, particularly algorithmic bias? How can trust, safety and appropriate guardrails be ensured in implementing AI in educational settings?

There are a variety of risks with AI that we should address. Some of those include:

1. Ethical concerns: AI systems are often marketed to consumers as objective tools. They are, however, tools designed by humans with their own subjective experiences and biases that are introduced into the technologies. These ethical challenges must be identified and introduced to teachers and students.

2. Algorithmic bias and discrimination: AI systems can perpetuate and amplify existing biases and discrimination. First, an AI system might be trained on biased data. Second, the AI system might learn to discriminate based on features that are correlated with protected characteristics, such as race or gender, even if those features are not explicitly categorized in the training data. This can lead to unfair treatment of certain groups of people, including students.

3. Cybersecurity risks: The use of AI in education can increase cybersecurity risks, particularly if sensitive student data is collected and stored in a vulnerable manner. As AI learns from the data that it has been fed, it may also inadvertently share confidential information that it has collected with other users.

4. Privacy concerns: The use of AI in education can raise privacy concerns, particularly if sensitive student data is collected and used without proper consent or protection.

5. Inaccuracy: AI systems are only as accurate as the data they are trained on, and errors in the data can lead to inaccurate results and decisions. Known as “hallucinations,” AI can produce inaccurate results that are not backed by data or evidence.

6. Overgeneralization: AI systems can overgeneralize from limited data, again leading to inaccurate or unfair decisions.

From a cybersecurity perspective, we must address privacy and security concerns. Bad actors are successfully using confidentiality attacks to draw out sensitive information from AI systems. Without proper security measures, institutions and individuals are at risk. To protect students, for example, institutions may put in place policies curbing the use of AI tools in specific instances or provide educational content cautioning them against sharing confidential information with AI platforms.

Algorithmic biases, inaccuracies, overgeneralizations represent intrinsic limitations of the technology since the models are a reflection of the data they are trained on. Even if care is taken to ensure input data is fact-checked and accurate, hallucinations may still occur. Therefore, a human element is still important in the use of AI. Fact checks and discerning eyes can help weed out inaccuracies. Councils guided by community-oriented ethical guidelines can help reduce biases.

Regarding national security, what concerns about AI systems need to be addressed? Could you provide some examples of cyber threats to AI systems?

From a geopolitical perspective, we cannot ignore the adversarial nature of the AI innovation race. AI-powered cyberwarfare is an incredibly impactful, cost-effective tool for adversaries to disrupt world order. AI can be weaponized against both networks and people and used to gain competitive advantage.

For example, criminal groups could use AI-powered hacking tools to disrupt critical infrastructure. In light of recent warnings that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had compromised industries including transportation and maritime, this concern is paramount.

Additionally, the proliferation of the use of deepfakes, voice and image creation and manipulation is a particularly concerning threat on the rise. These convincing manipulations could be used to extract sensitive national security information.

Policy makers are aware of these risks and are working to foster a competitively robust environment that will allow US tech companies to innovate, while protecting national security interests and the individual rights of our citizens.

How do the actions taken by the Biden-Harris Administration compare to global efforts in promoting responsible AI? Are there any notable differences or areas where the US could learn from other countries’ approaches?

The UK, EU and Canada have released ethical guidelines encouraging responsible AI development in their countries.

The US is joining the club with the Biden administration’s latest announcement. Though still in the early stages, the administration is putting serious consideration into it by relying on experts’ insights and requesting public input.

What additional steps or measures are necessary to ensure responsible AI innovation in the United States? Are there any areas that still need to be addressed or potential risks that require further attention?

Designing and developing the right model calls for an increased emphasis on public-private partnerships between the public and private sectors. We are off to a good start but the legacy collaborative models of the past won’t suffice. We know other countries are making rapid advances in AI research, so we need to move at a speed and velocity never before seen in addressing this topic and creating a productive and protective environment.

AI technology is very much a revolution in progress. On top of the familiar risks, we should be mindful and continuously evaluate new risks that the technology may present. A key component to ensure responsible AI innovation is education. When people understand what is behind the technology they consume and its current limitations, the standard rises, and we all benefit.

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Content: Home > Web3

AI Voice Over Generator: Turning Text to Speech in 24 Languages

newsonjapan.com -- Aug 15
Communication has crossed boundaries and languages in today's technology driven society.

The AI voice over generator, a sophisticated technology capable of translating written text into realistic speech in a variety of languages, is a driving force in this worldwide change. The astonishing capacity of these technologies to produce voice overs in 24 different languages, and often more, is propelling them to the forefront of digital communication. We go deep into the field of AI-driven text to voice below, giving practical tips for anybody interested in realizing its enormous potential.

Why Do Multilingual Skills Matter?

Language inclusion is critical for companies, schools, and content providers that want to reach a global audience. An AI voice over generator that handles various languages allows for a broader reach while also ensuring that no audience section feels alienated. Multilingual technologies, such as those that transform English transcripts into Mandarin audio or Spanish text into French voice, help to break down communication obstacles.

Practical User Advice:

Emphasize Quality Over Quantity: While having a tool that can translate text in several languages seems great, it is critical to emphasize output quality. Choose platforms that are well-known for their precision and realistic voice reproduction.

Adjust the Tone, pace, and Accent: A decent AI voice over generator enables users to adjust the tone, pace, and accent of the created speech. This adaptability guarantees that the discourse is genuine and connects with the intended listener.

Keep Up to Date: Because these technologies are based on AI, they are always improving. Regular software upgrades might bring new languages to the table or enhance current ones. To benefit from the most recent advances, keep your software up to date at all times.

Using Nuanced Speech to Bridge Cultural Gaps

Understanding a language entails understanding the nuances, intonations, and cultural nuances as well as the words themselves. Advanced AI voice over generators not only translate text to speech but also guarantee that the speech is emotionally appropriate. For example, the way a joke is presented in Japanese may vary from how it is shown in German. As a result, always use a tool that considers these subtleties in order to make the speech seem as genuine and culturally appropriate as feasible.

Potential Multilingual Text to Speech Applications:

E-Learning Platforms: Educators may build courses in one language and then utilize an AI voice over generator to translate them into numerous languages, guaranteeing that learners all over the globe can benefit.

Podcasts in different Languages: Podcast makers may reach a worldwide audience by giving their material in different languages without having to re-record episodes.

Global Business Presentations: Companies with a global presence may simply tailor their presentations to a variety of language audiences.

Scalability and pricing

Costs, like with any technology, might be an issue. With the rise of cloud-based solutions, however, many AI voice over producers now provide scalable price structures. There is undoubtedly a price option to meet your needs, whether you are an individual wishing to convert a few pages or an organization with mass requirements.

Data Privacy Is Important

Given that these technologies may be used to convert sensitive or private information, it is critical to address data privacy. Choose platforms that emphasize user data security to ensure that the material you convert stays private.

Extending the Multilingual Communication Landscape

As companies and organizations strive for a worldwide presence, the demand for multilingual communication has never been greater. Then there are AI voice over generators. These technologies provide companies, schools, and content producers an advantage by enabling them to cater to a varied audience.

Courses in numerous Languages: Educators and e-learning platforms may now offer their courses in numerous languages. Python programming may be learned in Mandarin by one student in Beijing and Portuguese by another in So Paulo. Learning results are improved by catering to their linguistic comfort. The student may concentrate on grasping the material rather than dealing with linguistic intricacies.

Digital Marketing: By employing the AI voice over generator to translate and vocalize their promotional material, brands can easily roll out worldwide campaigns. This not only saves time, but it also guarantees that the brand message is consistent across several languages.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Systems: Companies may customize their customer service lines by using AI-generated voices in several languages. This provides a more personalized client experience, which may dramatically increase user happiness and loyalty.

Podcasters, YouTube makers, and digital storytellers may utilize these technologies to make their material accessible in several languages, extending their fan base and worldwide reach.

Language and Cultural Nuances

While these AI voice over generators' skills are astounding, users should be conscious of the subtleties and complexity of various languages and cultures. Even if a technology is capable of converting text to voice in 24 languages, the user must verify that the material is culturally appropriate and respectful. Certain idioms or phrases in English, for example, may not have a direct counterpart in another language or may be misconstrued.

AI engineers are tackling these issues by training their models on culturally varied datasets in order to capture the nuances of each language. However, it is also the users' responsibility to examine and, if required, change the created information to guarantee its relevancy and appropriateness.

Best Practices for Using AI Voice Over Generators

Here are some practical advice for individuals who want to fully use the possibilities of AI voice over generators:

Always Review the Output: Before completing, always listen to the created voice over. Check that your pronunciation, intonation, and emotion are appropriate for the context of your topic.

Customize Settings: Most programs enable users to change the pace, pitch, and other characteristics of their voice. Experiment with these options to get the desired result.

Keep up to date: The disciplines of AI and machine learning are rapidly growing. Use the most recent version of the program or application, since developers are always refining and improving their algorithms.

Request input: If your material is intended for a particular linguistic group, get input from native speakers. They may reveal insights that non-natives may miss.

In conclusion

In the digital age, the AI voice over generator is changing the way we interact. Its capacity to convert text into lifelike voice in different languages bridges barriers, fosters inclusion, and makes global communication easier than ever. Remember to consider quality, cultural subtlety, and data protection as you investigate the numerous products in the text to speech domain. By doing so, you get access to more than simply a tool; you also gain access to worldwide dialogues.

Web3 Page: 1 | 2 | 3

The right of publicity, which protects individuals’ control over the commercial use of their likenesses and voices, is increasingly invoked to address unauthorized AI-generated voice imitations, as seen in legislative efforts like Tennessee’s "ELVIS Act" [46e0c9c6-d356-4d00-8868-fb4ec4361b5b_569641390_1].

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Content: Advertisement

Record labels sue AI music generators for ‘massive infringement of recorded music’

Suno and Udio can reportedly produce uncanny copies of songs by The Temptations, Green Day and Michael Jackson.

Major music labels are taking on AI startups that they believe trained on their songs without paying. Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group sued the music generators Suno and Udio for allegedly infringing on copyrighted works on a “massive scale.”

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) initiated the lawsuits and wants to establish that “nothing that exempts AI technology from copyright law or that excuses AI companies from playing by the rules.”

The music labels’ lawsuits in US federal court accuse Suno and Udio of scraping their copyrighted tracks from the internet. The filings against the AI companies reportedly demand injunctions against future use and damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work. (That sounds like it could add up to a monumental sum if the court finds them liable.) The suits appear aimed at establishing licensed training as the only acceptable industry framework for AI moving forward — while instilling fear in companies that train their models without consent.

Suno AI and Udio AI (Uncharted Labs run the latter) are startups with software that generates music based on text inputs. The former is a partner of Microsoft for its CoPilot music generation tool. The RIAA claims the services’ reproduced tracks are uncannily similar to existing works to the degree that they must have been trained on copyrighted songs. It also claims the companies didn’t deny that they trained on copyright works, instead shielding themselves behind their training being “confidential business information” and standard industry practices.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the lawsuits accuse the AI generators of creating songs that sounded remarkably similar to The Temptations’ “My Girl,” Green Day’s “American Idiot,” and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” among others. They also claim the AI services produced indistinguishable vocals from artists like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and ABBA.

Wired reports that one example cited in the lawsuit details how one of the AI tools reproduced a song that sounded nearly identical to Chuck Berry’s pioneering classic “Johnny B. Goode,” using the prompt, “1950s rock and roll, rhythm & blues, 12 bar blues, rockabilly, energetic male vocalist, singer guitarist,” along with some of Berry’s lyrics. The suit claims the generator almost perfectly generated the original track’s “Go, Johnny, go, go” chorus.

To be clear, the RIAA isn’t advocating based on the principle that all AI training on copyrighted works is wrong. Instead, it’s saying it’s illegal to do so without licensing and consent, i.e., when the labels (and, likely to a lesser degree, the artists) don’t make any money off of it.

The recording industry is working on AI deals of its own that license music in a way that it believes is fair for its bottom line. These include an agreement between Universal and SoundLabs, which allows the latter to create vocal models for artists while still allowing the singers to control ownership and output. The label also partnered with YouTube on an AI licensing and royalties deal. Universal also represents Drake, whose diss track against Kendrick Lamar from earlier this year used AI-generated copies of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg’s voices.

“There is room for AI and human creators to forge a sustainable, complementary relationship,” the filing against Suno reads. “This can and should be achieved through the well-established mechanism of free-market licensing that ensures proper respect for copyright owners.”

According to Bloomberg, Suno co-founder Mikey Shulman said in April that the company’s practices are “legal” and “fairly in line with what other people are doing.” The AI industry at large appears to be attempting to race towards a threshold where its tools are considered too ubiquitous to be held accountable before anyone can do anything about how it trained its models.

“We work very closely with lawyers to make sure that what we’re doing is legal and industry standard,” Suno’s founder said in April. “If the law changes, obviously we would change our business one way or the other.”

Industry and labor organizations are also responding.

Industry and labor organizations are also responding.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has implemented contracts stating that only humans can be voice actors, aiming to protect members from being replaced by AI and ensuring compensation for any AI-generated use of their voices [81c8fd18-d07e-44e3-b019-cebf19791598_103508397_1].

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Content: AI and User Experience: Understanding and Improving Human-Computer Interaction

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our daily lives, from virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to personalized recommendations on social media platforms. As AI continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how it affects our interactions with technology. In particular, AI has the potential to greatly improve user experience (UX) by enhancing human-computer interaction (HCI).

HCI refers to the way humans interact with computers and other digital devices. It encompasses everything from the design of user interfaces to the way we input and receive information. In recent years, HCI has become a major focus for tech companies, as they seek to create products that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use. AI has emerged as a powerful tool for improving HCI, as it can analyze vast amounts of data and adapt to users’ behavior in real-time.

One of the most promising applications of AI in HCI is in the area of natural language processing (NLP). NLP refers to the ability of computers to understand and interpret human language. This is essential for creating conversational interfaces, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, that can understand and respond to users’ requests in a natural and intuitive way. AI-powered NLP systems can analyze the context and tone of a user’s message, and provide a personalized response that takes into account their previous interactions with the system.

Another area where AI is improving HCI is in the realm of personalization. By analyzing users’ behavior and preferences, AI can create personalized experiences that are tailored to their individual needs. For example, a music streaming service might use AI to analyze a user’s listening history and recommend new songs or artists that they are likely to enjoy. Similarly, an e-commerce site might use AI to recommend products based on a user’s browsing and purchase history.

AI can also be used to improve the accessibility of digital products for users with disabilities. For example, AI-powered voice recognition systems can enable users with visual impairments to interact with computers and other devices using their voice. Similarly, AI-powered captioning and translation tools can make digital content more accessible to users who are deaf or hard of hearing, or who speak languages other than the one in which the content is presented.

Despite the many benefits of AI in HCI, there are also some potential drawbacks to consider. One concern is that AI-powered systems may be biased or discriminatory, particularly if they are trained on data that reflects existing biases in society. For example, an AI-powered hiring tool might inadvertently discriminate against candidates from certain demographic groups if it is trained on data that reflects existing hiring patterns. To mitigate this risk, it is important to ensure that AI systems are designed and trained in a way that is fair and unbiased.

Another concern is that AI-powered systems may erode human agency and autonomy. If AI is making decisions on behalf of users, there is a risk that users may become overly reliant on these systems and lose the ability to make decisions for themselves. To address this concern, it is important to design AI systems that empower users and enable them to make informed decisions.

In conclusion, AI has the potential to greatly improve HCI and enhance the user experience of digital products. By leveraging AI-powered NLP, personalization, and accessibility tools, tech companies can create products that are more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use. However, it is important to be mindful of the potential risks and drawbacks of AI in HCI, and to design systems that are fair, unbiased, and empowering for users. With careful consideration and design, AI can be a powerful tool for improving human-computer interaction and creating more user-friendly digital products.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached agreements restricting generative AI use in scriptwriting, clarifying that AI cannot be considered a "writer" and that AI-produced material cannot serve as source material for human writers .

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Content: Amazon’s Alexa will imitate the voices of deceased people – Link

Alexa is Amazon’s artificial intelligence device

Amazon wants to give customers the chance to make Alexa, the company’s voice assistant, speak just like your grandmother — or anyone else.

The online retailer is developing a system to let Alexa mimic any voice after listening to less than a minute of audio, Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s senior vice president, said at a company conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The goal is to “make the memories last” after “many of us have lost someone we love” during the pandemic, Prasad said.

Amazon did not detail when it would launch this feature.

The work enters an area of technology that receives thorough investigation into potential benefits and abuses. For example, Microsoft recently restricted which companies could use its voice imitation software. The tool is intended to help people with speech difficulties or other issues, but some fear it could also be used to propagate political deepfakes.

Amazon hopes the project will help Alexa become ubiquitous in shoppers’ lives. But public attention has already shifted elsewhere. At Alphabet’s Google, an engineer made the highly contested claim that a company chat bot had advanced into sentience – the ability to possess sensations.

Prasad said Amazon’s goal for Alexa is “generalizable intelligence” or the ability to adapt to user environments and learn new concepts with little external input. He stated that this goal “should not be confused with the ultra capable, omniscient artificial general intelligence,” or AGI, that Alphabet’s DeepMind unit and OpenAI, co-founded by Elon Musk, are pursuing.

Amazon shared its vision of companionship with Alexa at the conference. In one video segment, she portrayed a child who asked, “Alexa, can grandma finish reading the Wizard of Oz?” A moment later, Alexa confirmed the command and changed her voice. The assistant spoke softly, less robotically, ostensibly sounding like the subject’s grandmother in real life.

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**Ethical Challenges** The ethical challenges of AI voice cloning are multifaceted.

**Ethical Challenges** The ethical challenges of AI voice cloning are multifaceted.

Consent and ownership are central concerns, as the technology enables the replication of voices without the individual’s knowledge or approval, raising profound questions about autonomy and privacy .

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Content: HomeTech GiantsAppleYour iPhone will soon be able to imitate your voice and speak...

Your iPhone will soon be able to imitate your voice and speak for you during calls

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Apple has announced the imminent launch of many accessibility features on iPhone and iPad. The most impressive will probably be Personal Voice, which will allow an iPhone to reproduce your voice.

Apple released a Press release in which the company announces the new cognitive accessibility, language and vision features that should arrive later this year on iOS 16 and iOS 17. Of all these tools, the most spectacular is likely to be Personal Voice (Personal Voice), thanks to which “we can create a personal voice by reading a series of random texts”. Fifteen minutes of audio from this source material will be enough for the iPhone or iPad to faithfully reproduce the voice of the user through the grace of machine learning.

To read – Apple will cut off access to FaceTime, Siri, and other iMessages on older iPhones

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This accessibility feature is intended for users “at risk of losing their ability to speak “, like those affected by Charcot’s disease, for example. Live Speech on iPhone, iPad and Mac will allow users to enter the phrases they want the device to vocalize during a phone call or on FaceTime.

The iPhone will imitate the voice of users who have language impairments

The company’s engineers acknowledge that “technology often poses physical, visual or cognitive challenges for these individuals.” La Loupe will thus win a very useful new feature: “Point and Speak”. Visually impaired users will be able to “interact more easily with physical objects with multiple text labels. For example, when using a microwave, Point and Speak will combine data from the Camera app, LiDAR scanner, and machine learning from the iPhone to vocalize the text of each button when the user moves his finger on the device.

Function “Assistive Access” will personalize and simplify the use of the iPhone or iPad to improve the experience of users with cognitive disabilities. The smartphone interface will be reduced to its simplest form, with large buttons, larger colors and fonts. And for users who prefer to communicate visually, Messages will offer an emoji-only keyboard.

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The use of AI to resurrect the voices of deceased individuals, as in the case of Amazon’s Alexa mimicking lost loved ones, introduces dilemmas about digital immortality and the wishes of the deceased .

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Content: Tech
Artificial Intelligence

AI voice clones are turbocharging scams, top FTC official warns

"We need to be vigilant early," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
By Tim Marcin  on
FTC Chair Lina Khan warned AI is turbocharging scams. Credit: Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images

AI tools, particularly voice clones, are supercharging scams, FTC Chair Lina Khan warned.

Speaking at an AI and venture capital event on Thursday, Khan warned officials will have to be proactive to stop AI-powered fraud, Bloomberg reported.(opens in a new tab)

She noted that they are already seeing AI "turbocharge" scams, using voice clones that can copy family members in distress as an example, according to Bloomberg.

"We need to be vigilant early," Khan said, according to Bloomberg. "If anything you need to be especially vigilant on the front-end because it’s much more difficult to solve these problems after."

Voice clones have proven capable of fooling folks. A CNN report (opens in a new tab)noted that fake kidnapping calls demanding ransoms using the tech were becoming more common. Jennifer DeStefano told the outlet her story of getting a call demanding $1 million for their daughter before realizing the caller had used AI to copy her voice.

"The voice sounded just like Brie’s, the inflection, everything," she told CNN.

AI voice clones have even made popular songs featuring fake versions of real artists. Even a relatively easy-to-spot fake image of the Pentagon being attacked caused a real dip in the stock market.

"As this stuff becomes more embedded in how daily decisions are being made, I think they invite and merit a lot of scrutiny," Khan said, according to Bloomberg. "Those problems and concerns are quite urgent and I think enforcers, be it at the state level or the national level, are going to be acting."

Tim Marcin

Tim Marcin is a culture reporter at Mashable, where he writes about food, fitness, weird stuff on the internet, and, well, just about anything else. You can find him posting endlessly about Buffalo wings on Twitter at @timmarcin(opens in a new tab).

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Bias and discrimination are also risks, as AI systems trained on unrepresentative data may perpetuate systemic inequalities or produce outputs that disadvantage certain demographic groups .

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Content: Moving at rapid speed, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just announced its unanimous adoption of a new Declaratory Ruling finding that voice calls using artificial intelligence (AI)-generated voices fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The ruling takes effect immediately and gives state attorneys general powerful new tools to go after voice cloning scams. Under FCC rules, telemarketers that use robocalls subject to the TCPA are required to obtain prior express written consent from the consumer unless an exemption applies. The TCPA has always prohibited the use of both prerecorded and artificial voices but advances in AI-generated voices have prompted the FCC to specifically address their use.

In recent years, scammers and other parties have begun using AI to create fake and even "cloned" artificial voices, including those of celebrities, politicians, and even a call recipient's family member. In this election season, there has been increasing concern about the use of voice clones to engage in voter suppression schemes.

Concerned about the potential malevolent uses of these AI-generated voice calls, the FCC issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in November on the topic of "Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technologies on Protecting Consumers from Unwanted Robocalls and Robotexts." In the NOI, the FCC asked questions regarding the use of "AI-influenced" technologies in robocalling. A coalition of 26 state attorneys general, as well as a telecommunication carrier trade group, strongly urged the FCC to take action to give the attorneys general clear authority to act against AI-generated robocall violators.

The FCC now has made clear that the use of voice cloning in telephone calls and texts falls within the FCC's statutory authority under the TCPA. A major intent of the ruling is to communicate that the TCPA "does not allow for any carve-out of technologies that purport to provide the equivalent of a live agent, thus preventing unscrupulous businesses from attempting to exploit any perceived ambiguity in our TCPA rules."

As FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel explained, "with this Declaratory Ruling, we will have another tool to go after voice cloning scams and get this junk off the line."

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

What are some risks regarding AI voice clning?

In education, overreliance on AI-generated voices could diminish the human elements of teaching, such as mentorship and emotional support, while the use of student data for training AI models raises significant privacy concerns .

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Content: The scary side of artificial intelligence

The pros of AI outweigh the Cons or threats in our day-to-day lives, and there’s no magic pill to protect us from the scary threats of AI.

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  • Updated On Oct 3, 2023 at 03:02 PM IST

Artificial intelligence (AI), as we all know, is the simulation of human intelligence leveraging computer systems and machines. AI programs can continuously learn and evolve with experience. In technical terms, AI systems render the output by churning and analyzing the data for correlations and patterns and help make future predictions using these patterns.

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Today AI is being used extensively in all facets of our lives starting from lifestyle, e-commerce, home appliances, automobiles, navigation, transport, healthcare, agriculture, education, financial planning, chatbots, marketing, cyber security, virtual assistant, industrial automation and many more.

Clearly, we have and are leveraging the strengths of AI to the fullest to automate the routine tasks and make it auto-learn over a period. There’s no doubt that AI has revolutionized the lives of all – organizations, consumers etc. But as they say, “Everything comes at a price”. This analogy is quite true for AI as well, there have been a lot of threats that have emerged using AI and are being utilized by the Cyber criminals to dupe the ignorant users, cause mental stress and extort money.

continued below

Executive Workshop

I’m not going to delve into all of threats but would like to elucidate some of the real ones that have come to the surface recently:

Voice cloning or mimicry

As the name suggests, it uses machine learning algorithms to simulate anyone’s voice. It requires certain voice data to analyze and learn the specific patterns of any individual. There are certain advantages of cloning a voice that can be used in voice assistants, chatbots, navigation systems and other areas. Voice cloning has existed for a while but was restricted to experts who possess the technical knowledge to be able to use the same. But now AI Voice cloning tools are available on the open Internet that anyone can leverage with literally no technical knowledge or cost to clone anyone’s voice. All you need to do is just Google and it will pop up and get a bunch of both free and paid AI Voice cloning tools.

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In fact, recently one of the global leaders in online protection published a report stating how AI is fueling a rise in online voice scams, with just three seconds of audio required to clone a person’s voice. This is extremely creepy. Just imagine, if a Cyber-criminal clones your voice and tricks your near ones by making them believe that they are talking to you, and request for money due to any distress reasons. In fact, these are not assumptions but real-life incidents that are happening across the world every minute.

Deepfakes AI

Deepfakes AI are being used to impersonate an individual by manipulating videos, images, audios, and other content available on the social media platforms using deep learning techniques. It mainly transforms existing content from one person to another. This is another area that has been exploited by the Cyber criminals in the recent past, and there are a few deepfake cases that have made waves on the Internet. One of the most famous ones being Deepfake created by a VFX artist of one of Hollywood’s most famous male actors. This piece was so well made by rendering thousands of pictures using artificial versions of the actor. There are similar Deepfakes incidents involving other global celebrities and leaders. The damage and misuse of the deepfakes videos could be extremely dangerous for the human society and can be used by terrorists to incite riots and create nuisance.

Creating virtual people

This is another area where AI is being used to create people that do not exist. There are a lot of websites that allow you to generate a random image by just specifying the age group, gender & ethnicity, and you can continue to refresh these images at the click of a button. Be mindful of the fact that these images pertain to people that do not exist in this world. On the similar lines, there’s an emerging trend of AI news anchors that possess a human-like appearance and are fed data that they can read using text-to-speech technology. Recently, there's been a surge of AI-Driven robotic new anchors in multiple language channels. While the main objective of this initiative is to provide royalty free or cost-effective human images for branding and other purposes. However, the overuse of these technologies causes Fear of missing out (FOMO), Feeling of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, and isolation may potentially lead to psychological and emotional vulnerabilities.

One of the Hollywood movies, ‘HER’ portrayed an introverted and lonely writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who purchases an AI virtual assistant personified through a female voice to assist him in his writing job. However, when he finds out about its ability to learn and adapt, he falls in love with it. The film delves into emotional vulnerability and the impact of AI on human relationships.

Needless to say, that the pros of AI outweigh the Cons or threats in our day-to-day lives, and there’s no magic pill to protect us from the scary threats of AI. However, there are certain preventive tips that one can follow to mitigate any such risks. Do spread awareness with your family and friends:

  • Set some code words with family, and friends to verify the identity during emergency circumstances
  • Optimize social media presence by limiting your connections with only known contacts and avoid connecting with any unknown ones
  • Avoid saying ‘Yes’ as a greeting while receiving unknown calls as it can be used to authorize credit card charges or other purposes
  • Continuously update privacy settings on social media to allow viewing by friends and family only
  • Avoid clicking on any suspicious links or calls received without proper due diligence
  • Do not share your passwords and other sensitive information with anyone
  • Verify the credentials of any online information before circulating it through various mediums
  • Avoid public Wi-Fi connections offered at coffee shops or airports, which requires to enter password
  • Closely monitor the time spent by younger generation on social media and online gaming
  • Finally, in case of any suspicion, double check and report it to the host site or concerned authorities
The author is the CIO of MOVIN

Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.

  • Published On Oct 3, 2023 at 03:02 PM IST

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Transparency and accountability are essential for building trust in AI voice cloning applications.

Transparency and accountability are essential for building trust in AI voice cloning applications.

Educational institutions and companies are encouraged to maintain clear communication about how AI tools are used, how data is handled, and the decision-making processes behind AI-generated content .

UNESCO and other organizations advocate for regulations ensuring that generative AI tools augment rather than undermine human intellectual abilities, emphasizing the need for validation and oversight in educational settings .

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Content: AI-generated voices will be restricted by the FCC for robocalls

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Robocalls are some of the worst things you can see come up on your mobile phone. Most of them are annoying sales pitches, or outright scams. But these days, with AI-generated everything, robocalls have the potential to become more of a problem than they already are.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

AI-generated voices are a real thing, and AI-generated voices can be made effortlessly. Spend any time on YouTube Shorts and you can find ads showing celebrities like Dwayne Johnson and Oprah, hocking federal tax relief and other scams. These YouTube Shorts use AI-generated voices to try to convince you that these celebrities actually endorse the product shown.

Using this method over the phone is far more effective because you don’t have the visual to help your brain discern that it is fake. According to PC Mag, the FCC has confirmed that AI-generated voice calls can “break an existing US law from 1991 that was designed to protect consumers from pre-recorded automated calls.”

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said, “The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the primary law we have to help limit unwanted robocalls. It means that AI tech like voice cloning falls within this law’s existing prohibitions and that calls that use this technology to simulate a human voice are illegal, unless callers have obtained prior express consent.”

According to PC Mag, the FCC’s rule may stop unwanted and spammy robocalls, but it will also affect legit companies that use “AI agents” for certain phone calls. The companies using this technology will then need to receive permission from users before using the technology for their phone calls.

Our AI world is getting wild and soon we may not know what is real and what is not real.

What do you think of AI? The use of AI in phone calls? AI in general? You may comment by using the social media buttons below. Please share on your favorite social media site and tag us on Facebook, X, MeWe, and LinkedIn. Or join our Telegram channel here.

Image Credit: dm.derk from Midjourney
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**Real-World Examples** AI voice cloning’s impact is evident in diverse real-world scenarios.

**Real-World Examples** AI voice cloning’s impact is evident in diverse real-world scenarios.

In addition to the China Media Group’s AI-dubbed documentary , OpenAI faced controversy for allegedly using a voice similar to Scarlett Johansson’s in its chatbot without her consent, highlighting the potential for high-profile legal disputes .

In political campaigns, AI-generated voices have been used to create personalized messages for voters, demonstrating the technology’s reach beyond traditional media .

Title:

Content: That’s how easily your vote can be stolen – and used for AI fraud

The person on the phone sounded exactly like Ruth Card’s grandson Brandon.

He needed money fast and Ruth, recognizing his voice, went to the bank.

Benjamin Perkins’ parents received a call from a man who said he was a lawyer. Benjamin was alleged to have killed another man and needed bail money. The lawyer handed the phone to someone – who sounded exactly like Benjamin.

In both cases, as Washington Post reported on, it involved a new form of fraud – voices cloned using artificial intelligence.

“Impossible to imagine a year ago”

In the past, large amounts of audio material were required to be able to reliably clone someone’s voice, but AI development is going at a breakneck pace – now it’s faster, easier and more accessible than before.

– What was impossible to imagine a year ago is free today. The companies that make and sell AI want a lot of data – that’s why they give away their services, says Tobias Falk, lecturer at the department of computer and systems science at Stockholm University, to SVT Nyheter.

“Having reached a point where the machines can imitate us”

– Algorithms are trained to imitate how the human brain works. It’s going really fast now, but it’s taken decades to get to the point where the machines can mimic us as well as they do today.

The police’s national fraud center writes in an email to SVT Nyheter that they are “aware of the phenomenon” but that they have not seen any cases in Sweden at the moment. “We monitor this and have communication with international contacts,” writes the police spokesperson.

How many seconds long clip is enough to be able to clone someone’s voice? And how well does it actually work in Swedish?

Watch the video above for our test.

In the realm of accessibility, UCLA researchers developed a soft patch that translates throat muscle movements into speech, offering a lifeline to individuals who have lost their ability to speak .

Title:

Content: AI clones child’s voice in fake kidnapping scam

‘I never doubted for one second it was her,’ mother says

Anthony Cuthbertson
Thursday 13 April 2023 12:34
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A mother has said she was “100 per cent” convinced by an AI voice clone of her daughter that scammers used in a faked kidnapping attempt.

Jennifer DeStefano from Arizona picked up a call from an unknown number and heard what she believed to be her 15-year-old daughter Brie “sobbing”.

The voice on the other end of the line said, “mom, I messed up”, before a male voice took over and made threatening demands.

“This man gets on the phone, and he’s like, ‘listen here, I’ve got your daughter’,” Ms DeStafano told local news show WKYT.

The apparent kidnapper told the mother: “You call the police, you call anybody, I’m going to pop her so full of drugs, I’m going to have my way with her, and I’m going to drop her off in Mexico.”

In the background, Ms DeStefano said she could hear her daughter saying “help me, mom, please help me” and crying.

“It was 100 per cent her voice,” Ms DeStefano said.

“It was never a question of who is this? It was completely her voice, it was her inflection, it was the way she would have cried – I never doubted for one second it was her. That was the freaky part that really got me to my core.”

The apparent kidnapper demanded $1 million for the daughter to be released, before lowering the figure to $50,000. Ms DeStefano only realised that her daughter was safe after a friend called her husband and confirmed that she was safe.

The scammer, who police are still investigating, appears to have used artificial intelligence voice clone technology, which has become increasingly competent in recent years at mimicking people’s voices.

It is also relatively easy to access and use, with AI tools freely available on the internet.

AI-generated voices have already been used in films to replicate actors like James Earl Jones who voiced the original Darth Vader character in the Star Wars franchise.

It has also been touted as a way for authors to produce audiobooks without spending hours in a studio reading their work.

The technology has also raised fears that it could be misused by scammers or people attempting to create deepfake videos, with one voice clone startup warning that it could be “harmful in the wrong hands”.

In a press release last year, the firm Respeecher said: “The widespread attention and adoption of deepfake technologies will accelerate the need to regulate the use of the technology.”

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Companies like Voiceitt and Ava are improving communication for people with speech disabilities and the Deaf community by enabling spontaneous speech recognition and natural-sounding AI voices .

**Detection and Countermeasures** To address the risks of fraud and deepfakes, organizations are developing detection technologies capable of distinguishing between real and AI-generated voices.

**Detection and Countermeasures** To address the risks of fraud and deepfakes, organizations are developing detection technologies capable of distinguishing between real and AI-generated voices.

**Detection and Countermeasures** To address the risks of fraud and deepfakes, organizations are developing detection technologies capable of distinguishing between real and AI-generated voices.

The FTC has awarded prizes for such innovations, underscoring the importance of proactive measures to combat deception .

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Fans yearning to speak with Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe now have their chance, thanks to artificial intelligence.

At the recent SXSW festival, AI technology company Soul Machines debuted their "Digital Marilyn," an AI-generated digital avatar that lets fans interact with the late actress through a chatbot.

According to Soul Machine’s website, their "revolutionary Biological AI technology" promises a "real-time, personalized interaction."

The site notes "Every interaction is unique. Digital Marilyn analyzes your preferences and tailors her responses accordingly, fostering a genuine connection that resonates with you on an individual level."

An AI-generated Chatbot of Marilyn Monroe recently debuted at SXSW. (Frank Povolny/Twentieth Century Fox/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

'DYNASTY' STAR JOAN COLLINS SAYS MARILYN MONROE WARNED HER ABOUT 'THE WOLVES' OF HOLLYWOOD: 'WATCH OUT HONEY'

Soul Machines partnered with Authentic Brand Groups, which manages the rights to Monroe’s image and likeness.

"Marilyn Monroe remains a timeless icon, inspiring generations with her talent, charisma, and enduring legacy," Dana Carpenter, EVP of entertainment at Authentic, said in a statement to Variety. "We are thrilled to partner with Soul Machines, whose cutting-edge technology is the perfect match to bring Marilyn to life in the AI age. While Marilyn Monroe can never be replaced or duplicated, Digital Marilyn opens exciting possibilities for multiple generations of fans to engage with her in a whole new way, fostering a deeper connection and appreciation for her enduring spirit and the mark she left on the world."

Soul Machine and Authentic Brand Groups did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Authentic Brand Group also manages other celebrities who have passed, like Elvis Presley, as well as living celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal and David Beckham.

Shaquile O'Neal and David Beckham both have deals with Authentic Brand Groups, the company that licenses Marilyn Monroe's likeness.  (Getty Images)

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

O’Neal and Beckham having deals with an AI company may surprise some, but according to AI expert Marva Bailer, the move is a logical one.

"Really, it's trusting these brand agencies that they're hiring because these aren't brand agencies that are being hired to expand their brand in a positive and connected manner," she explained.

"These are not deep fake people. These are not people that are selling crazy things on [websites or] whatever. These are people that are business people and have values and ethics stated on their websites.

"They're looking to go public, they have big investors, technology as well as creative[s] and artist[s]. They want to do the right thing. It just feels uncomfortable right now for many of us."

AI Expert Marva Bailer said companies like Authentic Brand Group aren't "deep fake people" and "want to do the right thing. It just feels uncomfortable right now for many of us." (Getty Images)

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Despite the official partnership and everything being legal, others have expressed apprehension over the potential the "Digital Marilyn" represents.

"AI-induced digital resurrection poses legal and ethical concerns. This assumes everyone wants to be resurrected, when not everyone does," Kris Ruby, Founder of Ruby Media Group and author of "The Ruby Files," told Fox News Digital.

"There is an expression called rest in peace. AI essentially hijacks this concept by making sure that no one will ever rest in peace again. If everyone is eternally alive forever with deepfake replicas, who is resting, and where is the peace? Not only will we be competing against machines, we will also be competing against the dead. Has anyone stopped to think about the consequences for what that looks like to the next generation of the workforce? Advances in machine learning have made the concept of digital immortality within reach. But is that a good thing? Will machine learning monetization of the deceased mean that humans can never truly retire?"

Last year, the late Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams, spoke out about an AI recreation of her father’s voice.

Zelda Williams spoke out last year about a similar but unrelated AI technology recreating her dad, Robin Williams', voice without permission.  (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

ROBIN WILLIAMS’ DAUGHTER, AND TOM HANKS, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY AMONG STARS FIGHTING AGAINST AI

In an Instagram story, the 34-year-old slammed the use of the technology, calling it "personally disturbing."

"I am not an impartial voice in SAG's fight against AI," she wrote, referring to the then ongoing actors and writers strikes. "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad."

"This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real. I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings. Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance," she continued.

"These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for."

Williams reportedly did have a stipulation in his will that restricts the use of his image for 25 years after his death.  (Photo by Albert Chau/FilmMagic)

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According to The Guardian, Williams included a stipulation in his will that restricts the use of his image for 25 years after his death.

"Fans want to feel digitally connected to stars, and AI has made it increasingly possible to resurrect your favorite star long after they are gone. But the stars cannot consent to the usage," Ruby said.

She continued, "AI poses new challenges when it comes to monetization of the deceased. Up until now, the problem was manageable, because the barrier to entry to access the technology was significantly greater.

"People who are alive are having trouble protecting their image from AI training, much less those who are deceased. How can a family protect or control the image from illegal AI training of deceased stars if stars who are alive can’t even control this?"

Kris Ruby, founder of Ruby Media Group, says that even though fans want to connect with stars, deceased ones "cannot consent to the usage" provided by AI. (Getty Images)

JAMES DEAN REPORTEDLY APPEARING IN NEW FILM WITH AI, EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON BENEFITS FOR STARS AFTER DEATH

Bailer noted that Williams’ case is different than Monroe’s, due to differences in how their estates are being run.

"Every single one of these discussions is different based on their legal contracts. And most of the contracts have a life of 25 to some even being 50 years. But some of the estates really haven't thought that far ahead, or they've moved on, and they really want and trust somebody else to manage that brand experience," she said.

When it comes to living stars like O’Neal and Beckham, Bailer notes their partnership with Authentic Brands "is a great example of how stars that are still in existence and very compatible with technology and their fan base, they're choosing to have these experiences. So this isn't really a negative. Obviously, it does involve compensation and economics, and we always have to have that in mind."

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Ruby however, highlighted that some things are muddled for other actors and artists.

"While recent media coverage has focused on consent rights for stars who are deceased, little attention has been paid to consent rights for stars who are still very much alive today. Most have had their work illegally used to train machine learning models. They did not consent to the usage and will most likely not receive royalties for the non-consensual use of their work," she said.

OpenAI has proposed watermarking generated audio to trace its origin and prevent unauthorized use, while

OpenAI has proposed watermarking generated audio to trace its origin and prevent unauthorized use, while

OpenAI has proposed watermarking generated audio to trace its origin and prevent unauthorized use, while