Could Art Become an Algorithm?
With the digital age spinning into even greater levels of amazement, I wanted to take a moment to think about voice technology. AI is rapidly evolving, perhaps at an alarming rate and it would seem that copy and pasting real life voices into newly created pieces is already here. It’s slightly concerning yet fascinating at the same time. I recall reading an article that highlighted “Chinese Google”, Baidu debuting a feature that would clone a voice in a matter of seconds. We have heard of deep fakes, but this new Deep Voice is also an interesting step in voice generation capability. How long will it be before those born without the ability to speak or hear will be able to communicate using such systems?
Voice assistants have come a long way, you can listen to Siri in different genders and accents. Cortana is a fully fledged companion and the Google Assistant sounds like an assistant I could get on with. AI is moving and it’s starting to blur the line between distinguishable computer systems and human interaction. I remember watching the movie “Her”, aside from its fixation on human and AI romance/obsession, the world seems to be moving towards AI reliance. For better or for worse I’ve also been interested to see if the performing arts will eventually be a product of AI coding. Will computer systems be able to create the perfect picture, music track or movie?
Could we be nearing the era of living in our dreams, where AI creates custom consumable media that is based on analysis of the mind. Lyrics, sounds, emotions and everything else that makes a perfect music track may be a hit one day. AI-generated music is already out there, and we can already see virtual performers take to the stage, amassing tonnes of fans with holographic performances. For those who are familiar with Vocaloid, Yamaha were able to recreate voices of loss singers and it makes me wonder if new arts will come in the way of creative AI usage. Soon performances may be heavily reliant on algorithms, data collections and numbers. Companies seeking to maximise sales and investments may see that a computer-generated voice is a project that might never pass away. But for now, as a person in this flowing digital age there is much value in human interaction. The people that sing, act, interact with me here on this platform and make art anywhere will stay valuable.
https://www.descript.com/lyrebird-ai?source=lyrebird
https://www.vocaloid.com/en/news/vocaloid_ai_news_release/
http://research.baidu.com/Blog/index-view?id=81
