Voice cloning is one of the more controversial aspects of Artificial Intelligence, with a host of security and ethical concerns about its use. That said, I was curious about how well it would work, and if a machine could really accurately replicate the sound of my voice.
1. How Does AI Voice Cloning Work?
2. The Results
The results were definitely surprising. In the audio tracks below, three are the AI cloned voice, and one is my real voice as a reference. See if you can guess which voice is which from:
- My real voice
- Play.ht High fidelity
- Play.ht Instant
- Descript
I asked a few different people, and the feedback was mixed. While a couple of the voices are obviously not quite right, one is relatively convincing.
3. The Summary
The progress of AI voice cloning is both amazing and disconcerting. While it brings numerous possibilities for positive applications, its potential misuse for nefarious purposes cannot be ignored.
It definitely has applications in automation (think content creation, sales processes, and training), but it’s still imperfect.
The Answers
This is which voice recording is which:
- Play.ht Instant
- Play.ht High fidelity
- Descript
- My real voice