Synthesized Voices Just Got More Realistic

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When ChatGPT launched advanced voice mode last month – inserting accents and ‘umms’, even taking breaths – some users called it surreal. Humans have been trying to make synthesized voices sound more natural for nearly a century. We talk about why and look at the history and evolution of synthesized voices, from robots of film like HAL and C3PO to digital assistants like Alexa. Guests: Kyle Orland, senior gaming editor, Ars Technica Sarah A Bell, associate professor of digital media, Michigan Technological University; author, “Vox ex Machina: A Cultural History of Talking Machines" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:42.3	From KQED.
0:44.3	KQED.
0:45.3	...youED. From KQBD in San Francisco, this is Forum.
1:02.6	I'm Mina Kin.
1:04.3	When OpenAI launched advanced voice mode last month, turning chat GPT4 into something
1:09.9	that could answer your questions
1:11.3	in a human-like voice instead of typing them out to you, some users found it surreal.
1:16.7	Hearing a voice can definitely make an AI seem more human-like.
1:21.1	Humans have long been trying to make artificial voices sound natural, and this hour we look
1:25.6	at why we've been driven to do that and what might be
1:29.1	the unintended consequences. Has the explosion of devices replicating human voices amazed you,
1:35.6	comforted you, or maybe creeped you out? We want to know after this news.
1:45.3	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Welcome to Forum.
	...

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