Fiverr's new AI Voice Over audition option

[uk1000]

I remember people on the forum talking about how AI voice overs weren't very good (quality-wise) etc. and I think even Fiverr complains when gig videos use an AI/computer generated voice that was obviously computer generated (they may deny a gig video for that I think). There were thread(s) also talking about how someone was talking about the risk of someone using AI voice overs (eg. where they could create a natural sounding voice over with a relatively short sample of the seller's voice - eg. not needing hours of samples).

Though now Fiverr have an "AI voice audition" option in the voice over section that's in beta. It doesn't show for all VO gigs. Maybe it's just a few of them.

What are people's thoughts on that? It allows you to enter part of a script (up to 100 characters) and you can then play the AI VO output based on that seller's voice (I assume it's been trained on audio samples from the seller). Surely if people thought it was good quality and it's not got an audio watermark people could use it and copy it somehow without paying (so it could be a risk) - eg. entering their script 100 characters at a time and playing it. Also if people thought it was good enough quality couldn't it be a risk to VO sellers (ie. it could be promoting AI voice overs)? And if it's not good quality couldn't it be presenting the VO seller badly (eg. make a buyer less likely to buy)?

Edited May 5, 2022 by uk1000

[miiila]

AI voice-overs certainly have become better. Sometimes, I need a moment now, or a longer passage of audio, depending, to be sure whether some audio I'm listening to is AI or human, whereas it was immediately obvious in the past. Personally, I'd always pick a (good) human VO over an AI one, if I have the chance. I can see a use for it, if you want to listen to a sample of what your specific text would sound like in the voice of a specific seller, sure, and if it was made very clear that the actual delivery will not be AI material but done by the seller, and that the sample quality has "AI deficiencies", it probably wouldn't put me off buying. 

I've no idea about how many VO sellers generate revenue by actually offering and selling paid samples, though; free AI samples of their voices might harm their individual business, but on the other hand, might also reduce the number of customers who'll end up wanting to cancel, and maybe John might not order from them after hearing their sample, but Jane who didn't like another seller's sample might order instead, and the option, if Fiverr play their cards well, might lead to more business for the platform as a whole, and thus for the VO sellers, too.

 

My general thoughts regarding the bigger picture... progress is often good and inevitable, but I am a little concerned about how "deep fakes" will affect the world we live in and us all. 

Curious to read some opinions by VO sellers, it's a fascinating topic, and I'd think also a very personal topic for sellers in that niche, as people would be able to collect samples of their voices with pretty much any text (I assume that some words might trigger Fiverr, but people can be very creative, after all).

[uk1000]

Here's a screenshot showing the feature in case people haven't seen the feature yet::

 

[frank_d]

I personally don’t like this at all. 
i mean this whole “people can be replaced in a creative industry” premise.

Seems like it’s inevitable though.

That being said, I was blown away by a new AI startup that is still in beta. They produced something out of this world, you couldn’t tell the difference from a human.

However, there is a flip side to this: Fiverr is once again trying to lower barrier and friction by doing this. Which may be fine with a huge chunk of the current clientele.

If they pay participating VO artists a slightly lower royalty fee vs them doing the work, it could be great for VO artists in the long run.

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, frank_d said:

If they pay participating VO artists a slightly lower royalty fee vs them doing the work, it could be great for VO artists in the long run.

Since it seems to now be launched, I will share some experience I had with this process.  Several months ago I was asked if I would participate in a Zoom meeting with a few other TRS VO sellers and Fiverr to discuss this very initiative.  They wanted to know how we felt about recording our voice samples to allow a 3rd party company to clone our voices to serve up these samples. While there were a lot of questions, and a lot of hesitancy about ownership of one's own voice, etc... there was one major issue that prevented all of us on that call from going forward.  Essentially in order to participate in Fiverr's beta, we were asked to go to 3rd party vendor's website, create an account and record a zillion samples of our voice which would create a template that allows the engine to clone your vocal delivery.  Problem was, as part of the sign up process, the user agreement stated quite clearly that the 3rd party vendor would forever own the rights to the template created, and could essentially do whatever they wanted with it. This included selling AI voiceovers on their website. For this reason all the people that were part of my group rejected the idea, and never gave it another thought. No self respecting VO artist would.  I'm not surprised though that they found some folks willing to give a 3rd party ownership of their voice simply to allow Fiverr to give away free samples of it as well.  

Bottom line is that you can already get a Siri grade VO anywhere cheaply, so whether you pay $5 for it on Fiverr, or order it from some other website as AI, the truth remains, "You get what you pay for." 

Edited May 5, 2022 by newsmike

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, uk1000 said:

Here's a screenshot showing the feature in case people haven't seen the feature yet::

 

Would you PM me the link to that.  I'd love to check out how good (or bad) the speech engine is.  Thanks

[uk1000]

Sent a link. It might be that you need to be logged out and with no Fiverr cookies for it to show since you are a voice over seller. Unless they're doing an A/B test based on the user's IP address (and only showing it to users based on that) or something.

Edited May 5, 2022 by uk1000

[newsmike]

3 minutes ago, uk1000 said:

Sent a link. It might be that you need to be logged out and with no Fiverr cookies for it to show since you are a voice over seller. Unless they're doing an A/B test based on the user's IP address (and only showing it to users based on that) or something.

Great advice.  Edge (logged out) did the trick.  So I listened to his demo, and then typed the first 2 sentences in the AI box, and honestly got what I expected.  Demo had emotion and nuances that are naturally evident in human speech. The same words made by Intel, were flat, lifeless and Siri-like. The sound of the voice was right, but it was completely flat and non interesting.  Sort of like if I pick up a tuba and blow into it.  It still sounds like a tuba, but it sucks because I don't know how to play one. Huge difference. 

Thanks so much for sending the link. I owe ya one. 

[callyofficial]

One of my gigs is to create DJ/club/festival intros, and as I don't have voiceover skills, I use AI voices. They are surprisingly good, especially when processed with effects, but I always point out to my buyers they lack the ability to express feeling and emotion. I also mention there are many skilled voiceover artists on Fiverr, and give them the option to source the voice themselves, which I then use in their intro. I'd say 10-20% of my buyers decide to get a real voiceover then come back to me. Although I do like the AI voices I use, it doesn't compare to using the voice of a professional voiceover artist and I think most professional DJs/artists/producers are fully aware of this.

[imagination7413]

Not entirely sure why, but I was reminded of this post (and Mike's, below it). https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/258767-tell-us-about-your-weirdest-voice-over-projects/?do=findComment&comment=1594491