Recently, many players in the field of audio recording have been surprised by the appearance on many websites of copies of recordings that they had never recorded, due to the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools that facilitate audio reproduction.
Thanks to advances in generative artificial intelligence, the recording industry is facing such a real threat that there are now free online tools to record any text, often even using the voices of celebrities or film and television personalities without their permission.
Bloomberg reported that some members of the recording industry were shocked that their voices were used for content they weren't involved in, only to learn later that the terms of their contract weren't clear or specific enough to cover such things.
Some companies rely on the voice of Remy Michelle Clark, the Irish woman (Remy Michelle Clark), who finds her voice in Mazda and Mastercard advertisements, while Microsoft also uses the Irish search engine Bing. But this past January, a sound engineer who worked with her told her that he had found a voice on a text-to-speech website called Revoicer that sounded like hers, but attributed it to a lady named Olivia.
For a modest monthly price, Revoicer customers can access hundreds of professional voiceovers that use AI-based tools to record any written text in minutes, and that recording can be used for anything, whether it's an advertisement, training, voice message, or audiobook.
And when Bloomberg reached out to the website Reviewer to ask Michelle Clark about the existence of the audio without her knowledge, the response was that they couldn't share how they obtained the audio, but the process was completely legal.
Michelle Clark said she doesn't know how the site legally sells her voice, but fears that the deal she signed with Microsoft years ago is the reason for her voice appearing on the site.
With a policy of sharing data with technology companies, many companies will have the right to use the voices of the people they do business with in the AI tools they develop, which will become completely legal.
Ask Michelle Clark. How many other companies use my voice and my work without even thinking about me? Now why would a company pay $2,000 to record 30 seconds of my voice when they can pay $27 a month to reproduce it?
Additionally, as reported by The Guardian, voice synthesis in video games is now a testament to the impact that developments in generative AI are having on the industry. For example, during the development of the game (Red Dead Redemption 2) in 2013, 700 voice actors recorded 1,200 game voices, took 2,200 days and read 500,000 lines of written dialogue.
This was considered a huge feat at the time, but now, with advances in generative AI, it's easier to simulate the human voice to provide real-time automated responses with almost unlimited dialogue options and voices. Although the technology adapts to the input of individual users, it raises questions. for morals. Synthesis of sounds.
In 2019, Australian game development company Replica Studios launched an AI-based game voice-over tool and licensed the voices of 120 actors for use in video games.
Shreyas Nivas, CEO of Replica Studios, said, "We hope that there will be hundreds, if not hundreds, of studios that are able to make games like: (Red Dead Redemption: Redemption 2) because everyone wants it, but every set of shots is." . Not very cost and time efficient, and requires a huge team.
Nivas sees the future in text-to-speech AI, but as with many advances in this field, there are ethical dilemmas.
In Japan, the Performing Arts Workers Association held a press conference earlier this month, raising concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on voice acting and music. The group of about 52,000 workers has called for legislation to protect their jobs.