Posts Tagged: voices
Their children were shot, so they used AI to recreate their voices and call lawmakers
The parents of a teenager who was killed in Florida’s Parkland school shooting in 2018 have started a bold new project called The Shotline to lobby for stricter gun laws in the country. The Shotline uses AI to recreate the voices of children killed by gun violence and send recordings through automated calls to lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The project launched on Wednesday, six years after a gunman killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen at a high school in Parkland, Florida. It features the voice of six children, some as young as ten, and young adults, who have lost their lives in incidents of gun violence across the US. Once you type in your zip code, The Shotline finds your local representative and lets you place an automated call from one of the six dead people in their own voice, urging for stronger gun control laws. “I’m back today because my parents used AI to recreate my voice to call you,” says the AI-generated voice of Joaquin Oliver, one of the teenagers killed in the Parkland shooting. “Other victims like me will be calling too.” At the time of publishing, more than 8,000 AI calls had been submitted to lawmakers through the website.
“This is a United States problem and we have not been able to fix it,” Oliver’s father Manuel, who started the project along with his wife Patricia, told the Journal. “If we need to use creepy stuff to fix it, welcome to the creepy.”
To recreate the voices, the Olivers used a voice cloning service from ElevenLabs, a two-year-old startup that recently raised $ 80 million in a round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Using just a few minutes of vocal samples, the software is able to recreate voices in more than two dozen languages. The Olivers reportedly used their son’s social media posts for his voice samples. Parents and legal guardians of gun violence victims can fill up a form to submit their voices to The Shotline to be added its repository of AI-generated voices.
The project raises ethical questions about using AI to generate deepfakes of voices belonging to dead people. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission declared that robocalls made using AI-generated voices were illegal, a decision that came weeks after voters in New Hampshire received calls impersonating President Joe Biden telling them to not vote in their state’s primary. An analysis by security company called Pindrop revealed that Biden’s audio deepfake was created using software from ElevenLabs.
The company’s co-founder Mati Staniszewski told the Journal that ElevenLabs allows people to recreate the voices of dead relatives if they have the rights and permissions. But so far, it’s not clear whether parents of minors had the rights to their children’s likenesses.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/their-children-were-shot-so-they-used-ai-to-recreate-their-voices-and-call-lawmakers-003832488.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
The FCC wants to make robocalls that use AI-generated voices illegal
The rise of AI-generated voices mimicking celebrities and politicians could make it even harder for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fight robocalls and prevent people from getting spammed and scammed. That's why FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants the commission to officially recognize calls that use AI-generated voices as "artificial," which would make the use of voice cloning technologies in robocalls illegal. Under the FCC's Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), solicitations to residences that use an artificial voice or a recording are against the law. As TechCrunch notes, the FCC's proposal will make it easier to go after and charge bad actors.
"AI-generated voice cloning and images are already sowing confusion by tricking consumers into thinking scams and frauds are legitimate," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "No matter what celebrity or politician you favor, or what your relationship is with your kin when they call for help, it is possible we could all be a target of these faked calls." If the FCC recognizes AI-generated voice calls as illegal under existing law, the agency can give State Attorneys General offices across the country "new tools they can use to crack down on… scams and protect consumers."
The FCC's proposal comes shortly after some New Hampshire residents received a call impersonating President Joe Biden, telling them not to vote in their state's primary. A security firm performed a thorough analysis of the call and determined that it was created using AI tools by a startup called ElevenLabs. The company had reportedly banned the account responsible for the message mimicking the president, but the incident could end up being just one of the many attempts to disrupt the upcoming US elections using AI-generated content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-fcc-wants-to-make-robocalls-that-use-ai-generated-voices-illegal-105628839.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Amazon has discontinued its celebrity voices program for Alexa
There’s nothing like saying a command to Amazon’s Alexa and hearing Samuel L Jackson reply in acknowledgement, right? Well, technically, there is actually nothign like that anymore because Amazon pulled Mr Jackson’s voice from its Celebrity Personalities for Alexa program at the end of April this year. If you’ve got Melissa McCarthy or Shaquille O’Neil […]
Come comment on this article: Amazon has discontinued its celebrity voices program for Alexa
Celebrating the inspiring voices who are #ProudToBe
Over the past 11 years, people around the world have turned to online video as a rich medium to help explore, share, and celebrate who they are. It makes us incredibly proud that over these years, YouTube has also become a platform where the LGBTQ community can express themselves, start new conversations, and create solidarity around the globe.
From commemorating Pride parades to opening up about transitions and explaining the ABCs of LGBT, YouTube is a place where anyone can belong no matter who they are or who they love. That is why today we want to help people honor and celebrate who they’re #ProudToBe:
Now, more than ever, it’s important that we help accept, love, and celebrate one another. In the wake of the tragic events in Orlando, we stand together in support of the LGBTQ community. We stand together with everyone who has the courage to own and share their identity. We stand together to show the power of solidarity, the power of love, the power of pride. To those beautiful and brave voices who continue to make YouTube the vibrant, diverse and empathetic community it is, we are #ProudToBe with you.
The YouTube Team recently watched “LoveExists / We are #OrlandoUnited.”
Celebrating female voices on YouTube
Over the past decade, we’ve seen women use their voices to make incredible things happen on YouTube. We’ve laughed with comedians like GloZell, watched beauty gurus like Yuya create new how-to videos from different corners of the world, and tuned in to see creators like Gigi Gorgeous start conversations about her journey as a transgender woman.
Women on YouTube are diverse, creative, and bold. We’re amazed by the way these creators inspire millions of fans around the world. Needless to say, it’s important to us that YouTube remains a place where everyone has the creative freedom to express themselves, their thoughts, and perspectives.
Today, ahead of International Women’s Day, we’re announcing two new programs to continue championing female voices on YouTube. The first is a new, year-long partnership with the United Nations that appoints top YouTube female creators as the very first Change Ambassadors for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Action campaign. The second is a global production program across the YouTube Spaces that puts women both in front of and behind the camera.
Through the years, we’ve seen women on YouTube become beacons of inspiration to their fans. That’s why we’re so excited about this new partnership with the United Nations and to announce Ingrid Nilsen, Jackie Aina, Yuya, Taty Ferreira, Hayla Ghazal, Louise Pentland, and Chika Yoshida as Change Ambassadors — the first group of women on YouTube to join the U.N. in advocating for gender equality as part of U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. This group of passionate female creators are brilliant role models on YouTube, and we can’t wait to see how they’ll work with the U.N. to inspire and activate their global fan communities as well as women and girls around the world.
An extraordinary community of women has also come together around our new global YouTube Spaces program over the last few months, creating new videos that put female voices in front of and behind the camera. Across our YouTube Spaces in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo, and Berlin, these female creators attended workshops and filmed over 50 videos on sets constructed specifically for this program. To help drive an atmosphere of collaboration throughout the program, six female creators including Anna Akana (U.S.), Alexys Fleming (U.S.), Julia Tolezano (Brazil), Em Ford (U.K.), Nilam Farooq (Germany) and Kuma Miki (Japan) acted as Creative Directors in their respective Spaces, helping mentor other creators who also participated in the global video shoots.
From tributes honoring historical female leaders and original scripted content, to discussions about women in the workforce and other women’s issues, these new videos will begin rolling out today on the YouTube Spaces channel, as well as the creators’ own channels.
YouTube has always been an open stage where anyone can share her story. We hope these new programs will inspire even more women to find their voices, create their own roles, scripts and stories, and advocate for the issues they care about.
And to the current generation of female creators who express themselves every day, thank you for inspiring all of us at YouTube … and all of us around the globe.
Danielle Tiedt, Chief Marketing Officer at YouTube recently watched “Emma Watson at the HeForShe Campaign 2014 – Official UN Video.”