Voice synthesis has come a good distance since 1978’s Speak & Spell toy, which as soon as wowed folks with its state-of-the-art skill to learn phrases aloud utilizing an digital voice. Now, utilizing deep-learning AI models, software program can create not solely realistic-sounding voices however also can convincingly imitate existing voices utilizing small samples of audio.
Alongside these strains, OpenAI this week introduced Voice Engine, a text-to-speech AI mannequin for creating artificial voices primarily based on a 15-second section of recorded audio. It has offered audio samples of the Voice Engine in motion on its website.
As soon as a voice is cloned, a consumer can enter textual content into the Voice Engine and get an AI-generated voice end result. However OpenAI shouldn’t be able to broadly launch its know-how. The corporate initially deliberate to launch a pilot program for builders to join the Voice Engine API earlier this month. However after extra consideration about moral implications, the corporate determined to reduce its ambitions for now.
“According to our method to AI security and our voluntary commitments, we’re selecting to preview however not broadly launch this know-how at the moment,” the corporate writes. “We hope this preview of Voice Engine each underscores its potential and likewise motivates the necessity to bolster societal resilience in opposition to the challenges introduced by ever extra convincing generative fashions.”
Voice cloning tech usually shouldn’t be notably new—there have been several AI voice synthesis models since 2022, and the tech is energetic within the open supply group with packages like OpenVoice and XTTSv2. However the concept that OpenAI is inching towards letting anybody use its specific model of voice tech is notable. And in some methods, the corporate’s reticence to launch it absolutely is perhaps the larger story.
OpenAI says that advantages of its voice know-how embrace offering studying help via natural-sounding voices, enabling world attain for creators by translating content material whereas preserving native accents, supporting non-verbal people with personalised speech choices, and aiding sufferers in recovering their very own voice after speech-impairing circumstances.
Nevertheless it additionally implies that anybody with 15 seconds of somebody’s recorded voice may successfully clone it, and that has apparent implications for potential misuse. Even when OpenAI by no means broadly releases its Voice Engine, the power to clone voices has already prompted bother in society via phone scams the place somebody imitates a liked one’s voice and election campaign robocalls that includes cloned voices from politicians like Joe Biden.
Additionally, researchers and reporters have shown that voice-cloning know-how can be utilized to interrupt into financial institution accounts that use voice authentication (comparable to Chase’s Voice ID), which prompted US senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the chair of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and City Affairs, to ship a letter to the CEOs of several major banks in Could 2023 to inquire in regards to the safety measures banks are taking to counteract AI-powered dangers.
OpenAI acknowledges that the tech may trigger bother if broadly launched, so it is initially making an attempt to work round these points with a algorithm. It has been testing the know-how with a set of choose associate corporations since final yr. For instance, video synthesis firm HeyGen has been utilizing the mannequin to translate a speaker’s voice into different languages whereas preserving the identical vocal sound.
