AI Voice Overs Might Replace Me

[easymedia]

When I first heard about AI voice cloning, I was both fascinated and freaked out. I mean, the idea that someone could clone my voice to a point where it's indistinguishable from the real thing is both incredible and concerning. But rather than fear this change, I decided to embrace it and create my own voice clone. I mean, if AI is going to put me out of business soon, then I’m going to put myself out of business first (lol).

As a professional actor of 15 years and voice-over artist, I know that content is king. Quality content will always win, and that's why I teamed up with other potentially phased out sellers to create our own content using AI. The key is to think outside the box and leverage our expertise and experience to create something truly unique and high-quality.

I believe that most people using AI to create content don't actually know what they're doing and lack the necessary expertise in the respective fields. But as professionals, we have a competitive edge that we can use to create content that stands out. It's like the ultimate collaboration between man and machine.

Of course, I don't use my voice clone on Fiverr because, let's be real, it's not as good as a human voice and the exported audio is low quality mp3. I know that nothing beats the real thing. While AI voice cloning technology has come a long way, it still falls short in terms of the nuances and subtleties that make human speech so powerful and emotive. A human voice actor can bring a level of authenticity and emotional depth to a performance that simply can't be replicated by a machine. The tone, inflection, and cadence of a human voice are influenced by a wide range of factors, such as mood, intention, and context, and even imperfections, which are difficult to program into an AI voice clone. And yet, the emotive capabilities of the clone really do shock me sometimes.

How do I plan to use it? Things are set in motion already! I’m using my clone to supplement my own voice for my self-published fiction novels. Since the clone sounds like me, I can easily replace any weird and robotic parts that it inevitably produces. It's like having a backup singer, but instead of singing, it's talking.

Voice actors fearing AI could be akin to voice actors who feared Fiverr and other voice-over platforms. People seem to forget that Fiverr and other gig economy companies have already shaken the boat in the TV and Film industry. It meant less jobs/money for actors, talent agents, casting directors, crew, and post-production people. 

But instead of me ranting and raving about it, I joined Fiverr in 2014. Now, I’ve been a Top Rated seller for ages. I knew I would succeed on Fiverr because I was competing with people who thought they could just buy a cheap microphone and make hella money off of voice acting when they have no background in acting and editing to begin with. My craft was honed using decades of classes, workshops, real-life auditions, and the real-life struggles of hustling in Los Angeles. This is what separates me from others. It’s not just my unique voice, it’s my unique experience. I can adapt my voice to fit different characters, genres, and styles, making them invaluable assets to any production, no matter how big or small.

So, while AI voice cloning technology has made great strides, human voice actors still reign supreme in terms of delivering authentic and emotionally powerful performances. As professionals, we must embrace new technology and use it to enhance our skills and stay ahead of the game, but we should never forget the value that human connection and emotion bring to the art of just about anything. 

The rise of AI technology is an opportunity to think outside the box and explore new possibilities. By embracing this change and using it as a tool to enhance our skills and create something unique, we can stay ahead of the game. Don't be afraid of AI technology, but instead, use it to collaborate and create something truly amazing. The possibilities are endless, and I, for one, am excited to see where this technology takes us.

Ironically, this post was created with the help of ChatGPT just to prove a point: Was this post valuable to you? Did this add quality content to the Fiverr Forum? That, to me, is what counts in the end. What are your thoughts?
 

[smashradio]

I've been saying for a while that AI will eventually replace many of us if we don't adapt. When I decided that I was actually proud to work on Fiverr, not ashamed, I got a lot of bile from the tophats in the business. Let's just say that the same people still use ISDN and want to get paid 5000 bucks for something you can easily get for 500 on Fiverr today while complaining about the "less talented" people undercutting them at every turn. 

Do I think that AI can replace a voice actor? Absolutely. In some cases. The nuance of a human can't easily be replicated, and I think that AI voices will eventually compete with us for cheap explainer video scripts and mindless Youtube-videos.

At least, that's true of prominent languages like English. I'm lucky enough to be Norwegian, and we can't even get a decent Google Home voice in 2023. I might have five years left before I start to feel it.

I've also been on Fiverr since 2014, and though I'll admit I started with some cheap gear, I quickly understood that if I wanted to succeed (for real) in the business, I needed to up my game. My experience over the last decade (in addition to my years in radio before that) has helped separate me from the cheap microphone people (and I'm using that as a term for sellers who think they can just upload a stock photo and record in their bathrooms). Oh, wait. You can do that now, with your phone, and still get a decent result, as I wrote about in my AI voice enhancer post. Good lord.

However, I don't think AI can easily replace a true human actor with years of experience, but it can most certainly supplement it. 

I use AI like ChatGPT and Bing frequently to assist me in creative processes but never to replace them. I think that's the key to understanding and using AI: it's a tool helping to perfect your craft: not a craftsman (or woman). 

Even so, I think it's foolish not to be slightly afraid of AI technology. While embracing it, we should strive to balance the risks because even the creators of AI, such as ChatGPT, are a bit afraid.

Let's not walk into a trap where AI becomes a new religion but, rather, a new science. That includes discussing the risks, especially in the short term, as layoffs will happen. Most people have no idea what's coming, and it will hit them hard. The end result will be hungry people. 

"Hunger is the mother of anarchy."

- Herbert Hoover

We won't have the technology to feed everyone in the medium and short term, as they become irrelevant. We're not into Star Trek replicator territory yet. And we need to get there sooner rather than later because this race toward AI will cause upheaval in more ways than one.

That said, seeing how talent uses this new tech to create positive outcomes is exciting and I'm looking forward to see what can come of your projects in the future. 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by smashradio

[easymedia]

16 minutes ago, smashradio said:

I've been saying for a while that AI will eventually replace many of us if we don't adapt. When I decided that I was actually proud to work on Fiverr, not ashamed, I got a lot of bile from the tophats in the business. Let's just say that the same people still use ISDN and want to get paid 5000 bucks for something you can easily get for 500 on Fiverr today while complaining about the "less talented" people undercutting them at every turn. 

Do I think that AI can replace a voice actor? Absolutely. In some cases. The nuance of a human can't easily be replicated, and I think that AI voices will eventually compete with us for cheap explainer video scripts and mindless Youtube-videos.

At least, that's true of prominent languages like English. I'm lucky enough to be Norwegian, and we can't even get a decent Google Home voice in 2023. I might have five years left before I start to feel it.

I've also been on Fiverr since 2014, and though I'll admit I started with some cheap gear, I quickly understood that if I wanted to succeed (for real) in the business, I needed to up my game. My experience over the last decade (in addition to my years in radio before that) has helped separate me from the cheap microphone people (and I'm using that as a term for sellers who think they can just upload a stock photo and record in their bathrooms). Oh, wait. You can do that now, with your phone, and still get a decent result, as I wrote about in my AI voice enhancer post. Good lord.

However, I don't think AI can easily replace a true human actor with years of experience, but it can most certainly supplement it. 

I use AI like ChatGPT and Bing frequently to assist me in creative processes but never to replace them. I think that's the key to understanding and using AI: it's a tool helping to perfect your craft: not a craftsman (or woman). 

Even so, I think it's foolish not to be slightly afraid of AI technology. While embracing it, we should strive to balance the risks because even the creators of AI, such as ChatGPT, are a bit afraid.

Let's not walk into a trap where AI becomes a new religion but, rather, a new science. That includes discussing the risks, especially in the short term, as layoffs will happen. Most people have no idea what's coming, and it will hit them hard. The end result will be hungry people. 

"Hunger is the mother of anarchy."

- Herbert Hoover

We won't have the technology to feed everyone in the medium and short term, as they become irrelevant. We're not into Star Trek replicator territory yet. And we need to get there sooner rather than later because this race toward AI will cause upheaval in more ways than one.

That said, seeing how talent uses this new tech to create positive outcomes is exciting and I'm looking forward to see what can come of your projects in the future. 

 

Well said, well said! I completely agree.

[terrygrantvo]

5 hours ago, easymedia said:

What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are that the title of this thread should have been 'I Am Actively Trying My Best To Make Sure That AI Voice Overs Replace Me'. 🙂

Kidding aside, I am not so much worried about AI replacing human creativity as I am that it will (in very short order) be able to create a dull facsimile that is just good enough that most people simply won't care.

 

Sort of like that ridiculously annoying TikTok/Instagram Reels voice, only... you know, probably better.

[newsmike]

5 hours ago, easymedia said:

What are your thoughts?

AI will replace that which is easily replaced, (low hanging fruit), while the innovators will remain. After all, AI can only mimic, not truly create, and who will it mimic? Perhaps less poetically, vending machines can indeed dispense a drink, but I damned sure won't sit at the bar at the Palm, and let a machine mix my martini. That will always be a personable human who lights the cigar, chats you up and makes you feel as only a human can. And for that I will always pay a premium. However, if I have one too many, I may let AI drive me home. Tools vs sentient beings. 

Edited March 29, 2023 by newsmike

[marykipper]

 Over the years humans have become accustomed to receiving everything instantly! No one has patience, there’s no denying the world has been moving at a fast pace and competition in almost every industry is rife. Everyone is on a rat race trying to get ahead of the lastest online money making scheme. 

Humans have become lazy, and negligent with each day that passes and AI caters to people’s needs  within seconds if not minutes. 

Will jobs be replaced by AI ? Err, Of course they will. AI solves a problem, it fills a gap in the market which is, a lazy society who want instant gratification.

Iv not entered through the doors of a post office for decades, why would I? gmail.com? Most of my local bank branches have closed down. My branch  is a tiny  favicon on my iPhone. 

Most job titles that exist today will be a distance memory pretty soonish! I reckon. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by marykipper

[easymedia]

There was a little curiosity about the voice clones so here is a short little thing I put together. There was post-editing involved to slow down the clone and enhance the vocals. Too much editing, in my experience, makes the clone sound more robotic. Ignore the music because that's all I had that sounded close enough to "lofi." 

This clone was given 25 short samples in .aif for the highest quality output. The site I used was ElevenLabs.

But have a listen if you like and tell me... how "real" does it sound to you?

[zeus777]

Well I have no experience in the AI field, but this sounds nice to me.
If you would have told me that it was a real human's voice, I'd believe you.

I guess AI can be used as a useful tool, you just need to use it correctly and know
what to do in order to make it sound natural and non-robotic. 
This can be cool but as a translator and illustrator, it does still worry me a bit. 😅

[theratypist]

I'm no expert in voiceovers but I would be fine hearing this voice when I need guided meditation (which is the context in the example).

I wonder how AI cloned voices fare in those voices that need more emotion? I think they work fine in stuff similar to guided meditation but I wonder how well they do in let's say voice characters... 😆

Although it's another discussion altogether if I'm talking to AI. Let's say I call Customer Service and its a robot/AI that's talking to me. Text/chat is fine but not sure about a whole conversation. But hey, maybe we'll all ease into it somehow? 🤣

[bubiproductions]

I've been following the advancement of AI voice for a year now, it is good to hear an example without the intention of making content about AI voice itself, so thank you for sharing! Speech-wise, it sounds mostly natural and follows the topic well. Sound-wise, there are some awkwardness in high frequency content, but I am listening with a studio-grade headphone, so it is probably not noticeable in general use!

 

I am intrigued to see how well it could be made! Have you tried to process the audio before feeding it to AI (like mild compression/leveling, eq, and denoising) to guide it better to what is actually speech? That way, it could react better so the less post-editing is needed and may not sound as robotic. Also, if AI supports such files, you could record and edit it in 192kHz/32bit .wav to reduce digital artifacts. I have not used AI voice myself before, so writing these out of curiosity!

[grayprogrammerz]

Russia, America, China, Asia... How huge population they have. Did you heard anyone died of hunger ?

I believe jobs are created nor destroyed. They just move.

Just we need to remain updated with trends. and learn new when there's opportunity.

 

Imagine of mailman. Now we do same using cheap internet instant messaging.

Here internet did 2 things:

- snatch job of mailmain and postal service

- given job to messaging service and internet providers

 

Computer and AI are NOT your competitors. They are your time savors !

[newsmike]

20 hours ago, easymedia said:

This clone was given 25 short samples in .aif for the highest quality output. The site I used was ElevenLabs.

To be clear, was that your voice that you uploaded and then synthesized? I'd check EULA for elevenlabs if that is the case because you most likely granted them the rights to recreate and resell your voice forever. Have you seen the gigs on Fiverr where you can sample the seller with AI?  I was in the original meetings they had along with about a dozen other sellers when they wanted to test this prior to launch, and that was the reason none of us decided to go forward. Buried in the fine print was the fact that they own anything you upload and can sell it in perpetuity. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by newsmike

[easymedia]

4 hours ago, newsmike said:

To be clear, was that your voice that you uploaded and then synthesized? I'd check EULA for elevenlabs if that is the case because you most likely granted them the rights to recreate and resell your voice forever. Have you seen the gigs on Fiverr where you can sample the seller with AI?  I was in the original meetings they had along with about a dozen other sellers when they wanted to test this prior to launch, and that was the reason none of us decided to go forward. Buried in the fine print was the fact that they own anything you upload and can sell it in perpetuity. 

No I did not know about the Voice Audition beta! Wow! Well, this is what I found so far on the site, but I'll do a deeper dive soon. 

[filusaad]

It sounds pretty.....real. It actually sounds like this was voiced just for a meditation video. If you told me that it was voiced by a human I wouldn't really doubt you. But I'm curious about how it will sound when it's not a meditation video and isn't a calmer voice. What if this has a conversational tone? I don't think that's too far off considering the advancement of Ai

[easymedia]

Now I know what to post next!

[droberts1990]

Maybe this response is too late.

But I would give it a 6 out of 10 for how "real" it sounds. I thought that the voice was quite monotonous and I would expect a typical human to have more pitch variation when they speak. I know that some people don't but I don't think that they are so nice to listen to. 

The other thing that bugged me about this recording was that in my opinion the speech was far too quick for the content type. I thought that there should have been much bigger gaps between the phrases. It was encouraging people to relax, so I would expect that the audio would have an unusually slow pace in comparison to normal conversation.

These are just my opinions, I hope that they can be of some use. 

[psykkopatte]

It sounds like super real to me 🤷‍♂️

[easymedia]

On 3/29/2023 at 3:43 PM, terrygrantvo said:

My thoughts are that the title of this thread should have been 'I Am Actively Trying My Best To Make Sure That AI Voice Overs Replace Me'. 🙂

Kidding aside, I am not so much worried about AI replacing human creativity as I am that it will (in very short order) be able to create a dull facsimile that is just good enough that most people simply won't care.

Sort of like that ridiculously annoying TikTok/Instagram Reels voice, only... you know, probably better.

Great title! lol! 
But, yes, you are correct. There are many things that low-quality "replacements" can be used for, but those videos and reels are low-quality to begin with. They are made mostly by the average person just trying to play along with trends that are entertaining. No one would higher a professional actor to voice those things to begin with. So, that doesn't bother me. Now, if big Hollywood film studios start using AI voices to completely replace the actors... then I'll be upset.