So Google just presented Wavenet, an AI that recreates human speech more accurately than anything before. As a sound designer I am used to speech synthesis and have been playing with it for the past sixteen years. the last big innovation was around 2000. This is something else.
This is so close to a real voice I feel in deny. Convincingly faking a human voice to the ear the most unforgivable, most sensitive organ we have –and which is totally shaped around human voice- is a tremendous achievement. Like, I can’t believe it it’s pretty much a done deal.
Look at yourself and see how you react to the voice or sounds of your loved ones. Yeah, a computer will be able to make you cry really soon. Forget virtual worlds and visual cues, audio triggers emotions like nothing else.
Same week, Microsoft just announced that they have reached a milestone in speech recognition.
Both sides of the equation are being solved as we speak.
Obviously first thing I think about: jobs. It’s ridiculous how many jobs are based on boring ass discussions, bam, gone. The fact that now robots will be able to understand us easily AND answer with natural voices is FREAKING ME OUT. Jobs where you needed a human to interface between people and machines, ba-bam, gone. Voice is why you trust your doctor. You’ll trust a robot with a sulky voice even more.
As Brad Wardell is writing:
The new uber class (calling them rich isn’t even the right term at that stage) will be way ahead of the mob. They’ll have machines to protect their holdings, homes and families from the rabble. So those who think “they’ll have to do something for everyone else or they’ll be a revolution” think again. Don’t assume a universal basic income is a definite.
Of course no techlord be MS or Google or Uber or Facebook or Amazon are warning us, they’re too busy replacing us already.
If you have kids or plan to have some, you’d better get the discussion about UBI going right the fuck now.
I can’t shake the feeling that we’re arriving where we wanted to be but that it’s also an abrupt end to things as we know them…