Stolen voices matter because what's being stolen here is the authors likeness, his reputation that he's build in the YouTube tech space and used for commercial products he had already reviewed. They chose exactly his voice for that reason.
While AI voices will aesthetically be indistinguishable or even preferable they aren't going to carry any reputation or authenticity, which by definition is scarce and therefore valuable. In fact they're likely going to matter more because in a sea of generic commodified slop demand for people who command unique brand value goes up, not down. That's why influencers make the big bucks in advertising these days.
Exactly. If it was a brand of pen ink cartridges or dishwasher detergent, that's one thing (still would be wrong, but not as egregious, and I might never have known it happened).
The fact is, Elecrow's a company I've worked with in the past (never signed any contracts, but reviewed a product of theirs 4 years ago that they provided). They're active in the exact same space my YouTube audience is (Pi, microcontrollers, hobby electronics, homelab).
There are a number of potential Elecrow customers who also subscribe to my YouTube channel (one of them alerted me to the tutorial series, in fact), and I would rather not have people be confused thinking I've sold my likeness or voice to be used for corporate product tutorials.
Especially any competitors to Elecrow, who I may have a relationship with, that could be soured if they think I'm suddenly selling my voice/online persona for Elecrow's use.
Like slapped together particle board furniture vs hand crafted beautiful designs, I expect the price difference to be so significant that, like the artistic wood carvers of old Japan, that the market will dry up and fewer and fewer will hold the skill until it is practically lost
> Stolen voices matter because what's being stolen here is the authors likeness
There is not enough voice space to accommodate everyone. Authors would like to fence off and own their little voice island. For every voice there are thousands of similar ones.
This was fine 10 years ago because I would, if I wanted to get an impersonator of someone's voice who carries a lot of weight, I'd have to go through to the work of hunting them down, finding out if they were willing, paying them, or I guess having tons of children and waiting decades and hoping their voice is right for what I need.
Now I can sit at a computer and spend a few hours doing it.
You are completely blowing past the facts of what a person's voice is, and the value it has if that person is someone special to a lot of people. Are there people out there who can do spot on Obama impersonations? Of course. Is the former President not wanting someone who sounds like him to pretend to be him to endorse a local candidate trying to unfairly "fence off" too much of the "voice space"? Give me a break.
It's 100% about impersonation. We've already seen AI voices get used for impersonation countless times.
Because, in a typical fashion of what AI proponents miss, the voice itself doesn't matter. What matters is the human quality the voice represents! If a voice sounds like person X and person X is trustworthy, then I (either implicitly or consciously) will believe the product they're endorsing is probably good.
This is why we get famous people and experts in commercials. This isn't new, we can just do it without any honesty now.
Again: this literally only matters currently in people trying to steal a voice.
There's already VTubers who's whole visual identity is synthetic. Why wouldn't the same happen in any other space where performance can affect the perception of content, but you can now simply engineer the performance?
Like I said: give it 5 years and you'll have influencers who no one has ever heard the voice of, because they don't make content with their own.
On mobile so not looking for the link, but a couple of years back, a motorcycle enthusiast vlogger who was this cute girl had her filter drop live and it was a middle aged guy the whole time. In that case, I recall the viewership accepted him
>There's already VTubers who's whole visual identity is synthetic
No. Their assets are synthetic. Their identity is not. Their value and identity is in the real relationship and trust the creator builds with the audience. And that is what the company in question here tried to imitate. They didn't copy Jeff for his angelic voice, they copy him for the trust implicit in his reputation, name and 750k followers. It's the same reason Chris Pratt still gets hired to do commercials for millions despite the fact that any acting student would do it for 500 bucks and why openAI tried to copy Scar Jo in particular.
All these performances can be done by anyone for nothing, but they have commercial value because of the reputation of the person that's lending their likeness to them. And that's of course also why this is blatantly illegal by the way, we have personality rights and you can't shill your product with someone's likeness without consent, whether that likeness is AI generated or reproduced in some other way.
While AI voices will aesthetically be indistinguishable or even preferable they aren't going to carry any reputation or authenticity, which by definition is scarce and therefore valuable. In fact they're likely going to matter more because in a sea of generic commodified slop demand for people who command unique brand value goes up, not down. That's why influencers make the big bucks in advertising these days.