‘Stop using my voice’ – New train announcer is my AI clone
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4q7984nq1o
Posted by Asthemic
‘Stop using my voice’ – New train announcer is my AI clone
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4q7984nq1o
Posted by Asthemic
9 Comments
‘In response to the complaints, the tech firm said: “ReadSpeaker is aware of Ms Potter’s concerns, and has comprehensively addressed these with Ms Potter’s legal representative several times in the past.”‘
Hmm.
So, what it appears has happened is that this company have taken recordings of this woman (a voice artist), fed them into an AI programme that they generated and then are selling the rights to use that AI programme for voices to say anything.
Imagine if you’re working as a model (you’re not a famous supermodel, just a local, low-level model and you need your income). A company takes all the pictures of your modelling, feeds it into AI and AI merges them all together. Then that company charges all the people who would’ve used you as a model to get a picture generated. The picture looks exactly like you, but it isn’t you. They can get the image to be naked, to be doing drugs, to be murdering someone, to be advertising any unethical product you fancy…
That is what has happened here. I fully agree with her that her rights have been violated here – whether there’s any mechanism in law to assist her is another matter though. Even more annoying is the presentation of the article to make her appear like a loon…
This is what the “AI” companies are lobbying the government for. Seemingly successfully.
The story was first published by sky who seem to have had direct access to the contract.
They said “*Ms Potter alleges she was unaware the contract allowed her voice to be sold as part of AI years later. Sky News has seen correspondence where the company appeared to reassure Ms Potter’s agents they “would never sell them (the recordings) to anybody else”*.”
https://news.sky.com/story/voiceover-artist-gayanne-potter-urging-scotrail-to-remove-her-voice-from-new-ai-announcements-13375535p
So while this BBC article implies she didn’t read her contract properly, the sky article suggests she did and got written clarification of some of the terms to confirm they wouldn’t sell on her voice.
Voice over artists need to look closer at the contracts they sign these days.
*Scotland does not like this*
It does not spark joy.
It isn’t very cash money.
I’m just waiting for an AI hallucination to occur on public transport. Like one of the really good ones, not merely making up a destination that doesn’t exist or something, but something really out there. There’s some good horror ones out there.
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> Will this work, or do I need to do this as two separate ps1 files?
Reply:
You don’t want to be blinded by the sun. You know that light is good, but you don’t want to be bled dry.
You risks are real, and the risks are real.
I’m blessed to be in the light.
be sure to take care of your self.
You can see better in the sun.
You can see better in the sun.
You can see better in the sun.
You can see better in the sun.
You can see better in the sun.
You can see better in the sun.
> What the fuck?
My apologies for the confusion; that was a metaphorical misfire. Your PowerShell script is not a candle, but a sequence of commands.
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Or this classic;
https://gist.githubusercontent.com/scottfalconer/c9849adf4aeaa307c808b59209e70514/raw/da070498710821f86e97b217027ccaed3cdb2800/gistfile1.txt
It’s a statistical inevitability it happen some time.
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My bet is on something like “The next stop is pontypool.” (Horror movie of the same name contamination).
“Pontypool. Pontypool… Pontypool…Do… Do NOT translate this message! It spreads through the words! Mrs. French’s cat is missing. kill the word that is killing you. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kiss is kill. Kill is kiss. Is that it? Kill is kiss? Thankyou for traveling with Great Western Rail!”.
People who don’t know much about AI will be shitting themselves. Most people get that it sometimes makes stuff up, but the sheer degree to which it can occasionally hallucinate is not known by everyone.
I really don’t see the issue, if the tech is good enough to replace traditional methods then great, our productivity has increased. If not then we’re not there yet but seems that isn’t the case here. Why should train companies pay 100x the price for a similar out come?
> Ms Potter said she did some work for ReadSpeaker in 2021 which she was told would be used for accessibility and e-learning software.
….
> ReadSpeaker told BBC Scotland News it had already addressed Ms Potter’s concerns “several times”.
So… Nothing at all to do with using work without an agreement, but rather a dispute about an existing agreement.
Nicely misrepresented, BBC.