Eerily realistic AI voice demo sparks amazement and discomfort online
Eerily realistic AI voice demo sparks amazement and discomfort online
Sesame’s new AI voice model features uncanny imperfections, and it’s willing to act like an angry boss.
In late 2013, the Spike Jonze film Her imagined a future where people would form emotional connections with AI voice assistants. Nearly 12 years later, that fictional premise has veered closer to reality with the release of a new conversational voice model from AI startup Sesame that has left many users both fascinated and unnerved.
-
-
It feels weird, like maybe over-practiced, but I agree that it sounds human enough to fool me.
-
It sounds a bit off. But if you're not looking for it, you won't find it. That, I believe, is enough to fool most everyone, which is arguably a bad thing.
-
At first, I thought it said it likes peanut butter & people sandwiches, and was like, WTF???? 🫥
-
For reference, this is what Maya reminds me of, Merle Dandridge, VA for Half Life 2's Alyx Vance.
I've skipped to some slower commentary, just so that you can kinda see what a human and AI can sound like with similar pacing while reflecting on a question:
-
-
Yeah I immediately disregard all AI propaganda that references "Her." This is for rubes and suckers.
-
I totally get what you're saying but did you listen to the recordings? This might be a breakthrough.
-
But is it that different than the podcasts voices Google already generate with NotebookLM since a while ago?
-
Lmfao, perish the thought
-
Or go try the demo. It IS eerily uncanny. It's not at the point where it would fool you for long, but it's close enough to get caught up in it from time to time.
-
-
-
Wow, Jesus. Maya has the same conversational style that Merle Dandridge has in the Half Life 2 commentary tracks (in commentary mode).
That is, even for AI, eerily good. Honestly, I'm not sure if I could always tell them apart if I was fed a bunch of voice clips blind, and asked which ones were human, and which were AI.