Testing Out an AI Voice

Sharing Options

If you have been a regular around here, you probably know that I think some aspects of AI are stupendous and wonderful, all part of fulfilling the cultural mandate, and that other aspects of it are creepy and demented, and that a third category of AI is just lame. We are all still working out what we think. Early adopters need to exercise more caution, Luddites need to exercise less, and regular folks need to take their time in order to talk it all through.

So with that said, I want to test something out with you all. Here is a link to one of my books, as read by my doppelganger-machine-other. You should be able to download it and listen to it however you usually do.

Tell me what you think. Is this one of those creepy things? Wonderful things? Slow down a bit things? Would you rather listen to a Siri-type voice, so that you always know it is a machine? Or not?

Comments are open, and variegated opinions are welcome.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
15 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Hunter Baker
Hunter Baker
6 hours ago

Wow, this sounds a LOT like you. Very impressive. The electronic nature of it hits with regard to rhythm and intonation, but the sound is right.

Jason
Jason
6 hours ago

I think it’s a great idea. Sounds a lot like you (practically identical) and would make it easy to turn out all your books in audio. In my opinion it’s a go.

Chris Taylor
Chris Taylor
6 hours ago

This is bonkers and I’m huge for it. Can’t believe Apple still doesn’t have a better voice at this point. I want an option on every one of your blog posts to have it read the text to me using this DWAI voice.

Seth
Seth
6 hours ago

Your words…your voice. So far, no ruckus–or there shouldn’t be. The greatest benefit (for you, I would guess) is the timesaving feature. Seems quite cut and dry to me.

zadok
zadok
6 hours ago

Yawn

Jim Lauerman
Jim Lauerman
5 hours ago

I hate to say this, but I actually found this easier to follow than the audiobooks you have narrated in person. This (I believe) is because you tend to read fast when you are reading something that you yourself wrote.

I think you may have stumbled on to a valid use of AI.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
5 hours ago

I think it’s criminal…

Rob
Rob
5 hours ago

This may be a minority view, but if anything, maybe speed it up. The machine character of it still retains some of that uncanny valley quality, but embracing that might be the way forward.

This technology can obviously save time on your end. In the interest of efficient information transfer, consider that increasing the listening speed to something closer to reading speed could save time on the our end as well.

Jeff Licano
Jeff Licano
4 hours ago

I put this squarely in the factor of one of those “creepy things”, and I would avoid it. Do you know that feeling you get when someone gives you a fake smile? It might look a lot like a real smile—if you wrote a list of “facial cues that indicate a person is smiling,” the person is definitively giving a smile. But somehow, it just feels off. It doesn’t reach their eyes. It would be better not to smile at all than to attempt a fake one. That’s what this sort of thing reminds me of This one sounds a… Read more »

John
John
2 hours ago

Super effective. I’d gladly listen to this and have no idea it was not your real voice unless someone told me.

Dave G
Dave G
2 hours ago

It’s a little uncanny valley, but only just a little. Let me preface my comment by saying that for most of my life, I have been a neophile, shunning Ludditeism at every opportunity. Perhaps my age is starting to show, but I worry that with the confluence of AI and robotics, mankind will have very little to do. We won’t need actors because AI will generate better ones. We won’t need accountants for the same reason. We won’t need farm laborers, or factory workers, or car drivers, or, or, or, the list goes on and on. When I asked Grok… Read more »

Karl
Karl
2 hours ago

You might as well use another voice. While it “sounds” like you, it really doesn’t sound like you. It sounds like AI.

JPH
JPH
1 hour ago

Golly, why not have AI write for you as well? I gave SuperGrok the following prompt: “Please wright a short article in the exact writing style of Douglas Wilson. Refer to dougwils.com for content. The topic of the article should be on the delights and dangers of bananas. Article length, voice, grammatical style, vocabulary, and general wordsmithery should be modelled., Also make up a pity title as Douglas does.” And here were the results, lol. Wait for the end! —- The banana is a curious fruit—a simple gift that’s both a delight and a daredevil’s gamble. Crafted by the Almighty,… Read more »

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
54 minutes ago
Reply to  JPH

😂

Kristina
Kristina
27 minutes ago
Reply to  JPH

Now I’m craving a banana split. …You’re in the pay of the ice cream industry, aren’t you??