Bill Simmons, founder of the Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, hinted in May that Spotify also planned to use AI trained on the voices of hosts to generate targeted ads for users.
This is what is really messed up to me (emphasis mine).
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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IANAL but pretty sure that's illegal.
It violates the right of publicity (which is either state-specific or common law) which is explicitly recognized to include commercial control of the likeness of oneself. That most certainly includes someone's voice. There's probably an argument that for AI generated translations some podcast producers have an interest in that they might wanna agree (broader reach), but with ads that is pretty cut and dry. At that point, I kinda hope the legal department knows this, because otherwise this could do incredible damage to their PR (as anything illegal does).
Stop posting business insider, almost every legitimate thing there you can find covered better by other sources and all exclusives are probably improperly sourced
It sounded good so I tried this and it's so so at best.
First off, I pay for no ads. To me, a fake DJ attempting to convince me it's a black man talking nonsense is just as bad or worse than ads.
Second, the music choices are early days Pandora bad. It starts off okay then a few songs later it's off on some tangent with no rhyme or reason I can understand.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Spotify is rolling out a new AI feature mimicking the original voice of podcasters and translating them into additional languages for a more "authentic listening experience," the company announced Monday in a blog post.
"A podcast episode originally recorded in English can now be available in other languages while keeping the speaker's distinctive speech characteristics," per Spotify's blog.
Spotify is working with podcasters like Dax Shepard, Monica Padman, Lex Fridman, Bill Simmons and Steven Bartlett to produce voice translations for specific episodes in languages such as Spanish, French, and German.
Bill Simmons, founder of the Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, hinted in May that Spotify also planned to use AI trained on the voices of hosts to generate targeted ads for users.
There have been mounting concerns in the entertainment industry about the impact of AI being used to clone the voices of musicians, actors, and presenters without their consent or providing financial compensation.
Actor and comedian Stephen Fry also recently said that an AI had ingested his readings of the "Harry Potter" books and subsequently recreated his voice.
The original article contains 285 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 38%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Eerie? This is awesome!
Yeah, this sounds like a really GOOD use of AI.
The part that the news line wants to point at probably is where it might be planned to use to create ads using podcaster's voices. I don't see what's the issue there is, now the podcasters can be paid to get their voice imitated for an ad they don't even have to practice the lines for.
But do they have control over what's in the ads? I know I wouldn't want my voice used to promote things without my knowledge
I am very sure that any company that doesn't want to risk legal battles would respect your choice. If the usage of your voice is behind a contract, you can definitely ask what it will be about and what will be said with the freedom to refuse it.
Its the same situation of using without AI another company's brand to sponsor something else.
And will they really be paid or provided a choice?
I fully agree that this is a great use for ai but voices are a part of peoples identity we should be careful before selling it is normalized like taxes
I think so. Unless they eventually want to end up in a legal battle.