Close your eyes for a brief moment and imagine a world where it’s near impossible to tell what is real from what is computer generated. The truth is, we are virtually already there to an extent, and it has enormous implications. We have already seen several examples of spoofed images and videos, known as deepfakes, but apparently artificial intelligence schemes can do a damn good job at replicating someone’s voice as well.
Researchers from Dessa, a startup based in Toronto that “helps the world’s largest and most complex organizations build real-world value with advanced AI,” demonstrated this with a believable audio clip of what sounds like Joe Rogan, former host of Fear Factor, stand up comedian, mixed martial arts enthusiast, and the the guy behind one of the most popular podcasts on the planet.
The team behind the demo created and produced the clip using a text-to-speech deep learning system they developed called RealTalk. This frighteningly amazing piece of technology generates life-like speech using only text inputs.
“It’s surreal for our engineers to be able to say they’ve legitimately created a life-like replica of Joe Rogan’s voice using AI. Not to mention the fact that the model would be capable of producing a replica of anyone’s voice, provided that sufficient data is available. As AI practitioners building real-world applications, we’re especially cognizant of the fact that we need to be talking about the implications of this,” Dessa explains.
Dessa is fully aware that this is both fantastic and “pretty f*cking amazing.” In the wrong hands, this sort of technology can be used to impersonate family members to obtain personal information or trick someone out of their money, to thwart security checkpoints, and spoof a politician to manipulate an election, among other nefarious scenarios. This is nothing new; they used this type of technology on 9/11 when they used to recreate the phone calls from loved ones.
This type of AI tech should be banned and completely eradicated for good. Since this can be used by criminals, police, govt and many other people who will use it for damages against the world.