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Alexa Will Soon Be Able to Read Stories As Your Dead Grandma
Tech Crunch ^ | 6/22/22 | Brian Heater

Posted on 06/24/2022 6:50:56 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal

At its annual re:Mars conference today in Las Vegas, Amazon’s Senior Vice President and Head Scientist for Alexa, Rohit Prasad, announced a spate of new and upcoming features for the company’s smart assistant. The most head turning of the bunch was a potential new feature that can synthesize short audio clips into longer speech.

In the scenario presented at the event, the voice of a deceased loved one (a grandmother, in this case), is used to read a grandson a bedtime story. Prasad notes that, using the new technology, the company is able to accomplish some very impressive audio output using just one minute of speech.

“This required inventions where we had to learn to produce a high-quality voice with less than a minute of recording versus hours of recording in the studio,” the executive notes. “The way we made it happen is by framing the problem as a voice conversion task and not a speech generation path. We are unquestionably living in the golden era of AI, where our dreams and science fictions are becoming a reality.”

(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: ai; alexa; amazon; fakery; technology

1 posted on 06/24/2022 6:50:56 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Thank God I dont use alexa or any other “smrtcrap” devices.


2 posted on 06/24/2022 6:53:09 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

“And remember Johnny, don’t trust that Donald Trump fella. I’ve been around a long time, and I can spot a Nazi when I see one, so don’t listen to that man. Sweet dreams.”


3 posted on 06/24/2022 6:55:59 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. It's "whatever".)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Think of all the realistic fake quotes the media can create now. They can synthesize the entire back channel communications between Trump and Putin. No need to even fake out the FISA court to get illegal eavesdropping privileges hoping to score something useful. Just have AI fake it all.


4 posted on 06/24/2022 6:57:40 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

I don’t want it. Many is the time I was ‘glad’ certain late family members were not still alive so they would find out about my latest questionable decision in leading my life.
I know this Alexa feature is nothing mysterious, but it’s close enough.


5 posted on 06/24/2022 6:58:53 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Talk about putting words into someone’s mouth!


6 posted on 06/24/2022 6:58:57 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Secret Agent Man
Thank God I dont use alexa or any other “smrtcrap” devices.

That doesn't mean alexa or any other "smrtcrap" devices aren't using you.

Every computer or smartphone you own is listening to you 24/7.

The only way to avoid it is to own none.

7 posted on 06/24/2022 7:00:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Contempt for pre-born human life breeds contempt for post-born human life.)
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To: Secret Agent Man
High-tech necromancy.
8 posted on 06/24/2022 7:01:05 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

really? with her German accent???


9 posted on 06/24/2022 7:03:45 PM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Gee, this is totally normal. It’s not demonic at all. This is all just fine. /S


10 posted on 06/24/2022 7:07:32 PM PDT by cdcdawg (Black Ukrainian Coronavirus Vaccine Abortions Matter. It’s called democracy, folks. It’s who we are.)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Ok, as long as they don’t involve my whiskey drinkin’ grandma beating , grandad.


11 posted on 06/24/2022 7:10:29 PM PDT by dynachrome (“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the US economy.” Rand Paul)
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To: piasa

Pretty soon they won’t be paying Hollywood superstars millions to make movies. They can do visuals with CGI, have an AI read the script, and if the public finds the new “actor” likable enough, he can stay 25 forever and make movies for 100 years without really costing much of anything.


12 posted on 06/24/2022 7:14:44 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. It's "whatever".)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal
And this is just the start. Imagine what it will be like in, say 50 years, when AI has reached unthinkable levels? Say grandma dies, AI will be able to go through her entire lifetime of text messages, social media posts and just about every word she ever spoke (recording and stored out in the cloud from every mobile device she ever owned) and create an AI "duplicate" of her that is virtually indistinguishable from the way she was when she was alive, same beliefs, same reactions, everything. So you want to have a heart to heart with Granny, but she died five years ago? Just turn on AI granny and it's the same as if granny is sitting right in front of you.

In reality nobody will ever truly "die" a thought both amazing and terrifying.

13 posted on 06/24/2022 7:39:12 PM PDT by apillar
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

That would be a miracle, because all my grandparents died before I was born.


14 posted on 06/24/2022 10:59:32 PM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: apillar

“In reality nobody will ever truly “die” a thought both amazing and terrifying.”

There was/is a TV series (Netflix?) about this, where all of your information is contained on a chip. Well, only for the rich folks that can afford it.

I forget now, but they will engage in risky stuff, and if they die they just have their chip installed into a new person. I think they get poor people to offer up their bodies and they pay the poor person’s family off. (I might be way off on that - it has been awhile!)


15 posted on 06/24/2022 11:08:08 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: lee martell
Many is the time I was ‘glad’ certain late family members were not still alive so they would find out about my latest questionable decision in leading my life.

Santa cries every time he sees you - ahem - "having fun by yourself."

Regards,

16 posted on 06/24/2022 11:15:38 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: alexander_busek

“Better watch out. Better not cry!”


17 posted on 06/25/2022 12:29:27 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

That’s not creepy at all. /s

Seriously, what is wrong with these people?


18 posted on 06/25/2022 5:05:00 AM PDT by Dutch Boy (The only thing worse than having something taken from you is to have it returned broken. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Did you know that there are test instruments that can monitor packets from cellular phones? Did you know that when cell phones are exchanging audio with the tower that there are two fully laden packets every 20 milliseconds? Did you know that when not conversing that there is only one short ping packet every five seconds?

How do those ping packets carry enough data to represent audio?

19 posted on 06/25/2022 8:35:21 AM PDT by GingisK
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