The beginning of a new Era or the final defiliment - The project to give voice all Morrowind's dialogues with AI has begun

[Jarmaro]

 

[RaggleFraggle]

So you've been complaining for 30 years about devs using voice actors instead of speech synthesis, but now that you have supposedly synthesis that can mimic humans perfectly that is exciting? Isn't this redundant, if the speech synthesizer sounds exactly like a human?

The problem with humans is that most of them are bad at voice acting. So if you can get the technology to where a synthetized voice sounds exactly like a human, and has the added benefit of voice acting well, then this is something to be excited for, considering how weak voice acting for games is in general. But I find that to be a tad optimistic.

Isn’t it great that there’s a bottleneck on human [insert creative job] but AI will put them out of business and discourage anyone from ever learning [insert creative skill] ever again? That surely won’t ever have negative unforeseen consequences!

 

[EvilWolf]

So you've been complaining for 30 years about devs using voice actors instead of speech synthesis, but now that you have supposedly synthesis that can mimic humans perfectly that is exciting? Isn't this redundant, if the speech synthesizer sounds exactly like a human?

The problem with humans is that most of them are bad at voice acting. So if you can get the technology to where a synthetized voice sounds exactly like a human, and has the added benefit of voice acting well, then this is something to be excited for, considering how weak voice acting for games is in general. But I find that to be a tad optimistic.

Isn’t it great that there’s a bottleneck on human [insert creative job] but AI will put them out of business and discourage anyone from ever learning [insert creative skill] ever again? That surely won’t ever have negative unforeseen consequences!

I feel like humanity is creatively bankrupt right now. I would rather experience ai created art, with all its algorithmic shortcomings, than hear about a literal turd being submitted to the Louvre or a "masterpiece" from a "true master of the arts" that looks like it was drawn by a kidnapped 5th grader held at gunpoint.

 

[Harthwain]

Isn’t it great that there’s a bottleneck on human [insert creative job] but AI will put them out of business and discourage anyone from ever learning [insert creative skill] ever

People who are good at their job won't be replaced with AI. Not at this level. The real threat - right now - looms over people who do something relatively simple and time-consuming. I don't really mind the AI allowing us to give a voice to NPCs who otherwise would never get it (which is a net positive change), nor do I mind the AI replacing shit voices (which are aplenty). By the way, it's funny that you say "there is a bottleneck" and then complain about AI helping to solve that bottleneck.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Isn’t it great that there’s a bottleneck on human [insert creative job] but AI will put them out of business and discourage anyone from ever learning [insert creative skill] ever

People who are good at their job won't be replaced with AI. Not at this level. The real threat - right now - looms over people who do something relatively simple and time-consuming. I don't really mind the AI allowing us to give a voice to NPCs who otherwise would never get it (which is a net positive change), nor do I mind the AI replacing shit voices (which are aplenty). By the way, it's funny that you say "there is a bottleneck" and then complain about AI helping to solve that bottleneck.

So one might think, but it’s not like we can accurately predict the consequences of technological advances.

 

[Harthwain]

So one might think, but it’s not like we can accurately predict the consequences of technological advances.

True. We can, however, extrapolate that the pace of any technological advance will be much slower and not as far reaching as people tend to expect.

 

[Seethe]

So you've been complaining for 30 years about devs using voice actors instead of speech synthesis, but now that you have supposedly synthesis that can mimic humans perfectly that is exciting? Isn't this redundant, if the speech synthesizer sounds exactly like a human?

The problem with humans is that most of them are bad at voice acting. So if you can get the technology to where a synthetized voice sounds exactly like a human, and has the added benefit of voice acting well, then this is something to be excited for, considering how weak voice acting for games is in general. But I find that to be a tad optimistic.

Isn’t it great that there’s a bottleneck on human [insert creative job] but AI will put them out of business and discourage anyone from ever learning [insert creative skill] ever again? That surely won’t ever have negative unforeseen consequences!

I feel like humanity is creatively bankrupt right now. I would rather experience ai created art, with all its algorithmic shortcomings, than hear about a literal turd being submitted to the Louvre or a "masterpiece" from a "true master of the arts" that looks like it was drawn by a kidnapped 5th grader held at gunpoint.

This will literally happen more now with AI, and for a while it will even gain extra attention due to the novelty of it. What makes you think that with "AI", this won't happen anymore? How do you manage to reach an "x or y" situation under this circumstance? And more importantly, why are you comparing AI generated "art" which feeds off of the likes of Steve Zapata and David Finch (or Krenz Kushart if you're a weeb), with "art" that gets confused with literal trash at art exhibition. "AI" does not come up with new concepts, it just remixes things it has "seen" from other artists. You are targeting the wrong people here. You think that just because you are unaware of good art, good art doesn't exist? So what art did the AI train on then? It cannot be creative, if humanity is creatively bankrupt because it cannot come up with new concepts. As you generate your filth, you input an artists name, or a site where artists post their art. So what happens here, do you believe that the AI takes shitty human art and transforms it into something good? You think that the artists who complain about "AI art" are the likes of Jackson Pollock? Because from where I'm standing, the artists who complain are those like Dave Rapoza who're being mimicked by losers through "AI", which makes sense because who would bother to mimic Jackson Pollock?


Do not be surprised if humanity will get even more creatively bankrupt now that we have total fucking morons pushing on society and the newer generations the idea that making art is an unpleasant thing to do, and you have to use generative software to do it. And do not kid yourself, if you use these generative models you do not enjoy making art. You hate making art, that's why you use them, to avoid the whole "making art" thing.

 

[Jarmaro]

And do not kid yourself, if you use these generative models you do not enjoy making art. You hate making art, that's why you use them, to avoid the whole "making art" thing.

Just to clarify that, artists generally say they hate making art. They like the result, but the process itself is not enjoyable to them. Maybe they are delusional, maybe they are just lying, but the point is very few people actually enjoy 'creating' as a process. Everyone likes having an idea and the result instantly.

 

[MWaser]

And do not kid yourself, if you use these generative models you do not enjoy making art. You hate making art, that's why you use them, to avoid the whole "making art" thing.

Just to clarify that, artists generally say they hate making art. They like the result, but the process itself is not enjoyable to them. Maybe they are delusional, maybe they are just lying, but the point is very few people actually enjoy 'creating' as a process. Everyone likes having an idea and the result instantly.

They hate producing art when it is their job because of the responsibilities associated with them. They generally enjoy the process before they make it their dedicated job and have no responsibilities tying them to delivering results on schedule.

 

[Jarmaro]

They hate producing art when it is their job because of the responsibilities associated with them. They generally enjoy the process before they make it their dedicated job and have no responsibilities tying them to delivering results on schedule.

No. They hate the process even when they are doing it for themselves. That's the consistent message I keep hearing in artistic circles. Maybe there's a difference between painters, writers etc, but many writers I talked with hated the process, but liked the result.

 

[Gargaune]

So you've been complaining for 30 years about devs using voice actors instead of speech synthesis, but now that you have supposedly synthesis that can mimic humans perfectly that is exciting? Isn't this redundant, if the speech synthesizer sounds exactly like a human?

The problem with humans is that most of them are bad at voice acting. So if you can get the technology to where a synthetized voice sounds exactly like a human, and has the added benefit of voice acting well, then this is something to be excited for, considering how weak voice acting for games is in general. But I find that to be a tad optimistic.

Isn’t it great that there’s a bottleneck on human [insert creative job] but AI will put them out of business and discourage anyone from ever learning [insert creative skill] ever again? That surely won’t ever have negative unforeseen consequences!

I feel like humanity is creatively bankrupt right now. I would rather experience ai created art, with all its algorithmic shortcomings, than hear about a literal turd being submitted to the Louvre or a "masterpiece" from a "true master of the arts" that looks like it was drawn by a kidnapped 5th grader held at gunpoint.

This will literally happen more now with AI, and for a while it will even gain extra attention due to the novelty of it. What makes you think that with "AI", this won't happen anymore? How do you manage to reach an "x or y" situation under this circumstance? And more importantly, why are you comparing AI generated "art" which feeds off of the likes of Steve Zapata and David Finch (or Krenz Kushart if you're a weeb), with "art" that gets confused with literal trash at art exhibition. "AI" does not come up with new concepts, it just remixes things it has "seen" from other artists. You are targeting the wrong people here. You think that just because you are unaware of good art, good art doesn't exist? So what art did the AI train on then? It cannot be creative, if humanity is creatively bankrupt because it cannot come up with new concepts. As you generate your filth, you input an artists name, or a site where artists post their art. So what happens here, do you believe that the AI takes shitty human art and transforms it into something good? You think that the artists who complain about "AI art" are the likes of Jackson Pollock? Because from where I'm standing, the artists who complain are those like Dave Rapoza who're being mimicked by losers through "AI", which makes sense because who would bother to mimic Jackson Pollock?


Do not be surprised if humanity will get even more creatively bankrupt now that we have total fucking morons pushing on society and the newer generations the idea that making art is an unpleasant thing to do, and you have to use generative software to do it. And do not kid yourself, if you use these generative models you do not enjoy making art. You hate making art, that's why you use them, to avoid the whole "making art" thing.

What the fuck does any of this have to do with voice synthesis for videogames? Are you under the impression that Troy Baker's creating a work of art in reading out the script for Gruff FPS Protagonist #54798 into a microphone? Does Skyrim's "arrow in the knee" line speak to our shared human experience? The fact of the matter is that tech like "AI" voice synthesis and ChatGPT present massive potential for progress in videogames, both in dislodging the VA union's parasitic chokehold over the industry and in opening up possibilities for freeform dialogue interfaces in the future.

If you wanna agonise over the nefarious influence of procedural generation on human artistic expression in general, maybe you should go start a thread in General Discussions or something, but your axe grinding ain't pertinent in here.

 

[Sranchammer]

Why do we need VA again?

 

[RaggleFraggle]

They hate producing art when it is their job because of the responsibilities associated with them. They generally enjoy the process before they make it their dedicated job and have no responsibilities tying them to delivering results on schedule.

No. They hate the process even when they are doing it for themselves. That's the consistent message I keep hearing in artistic circles. Maybe there's a difference between painters, writers etc, but many writers I talked with hated the process, but liked the result.

I admit that I hate doing writing for myself, but that’s entirely because of my own psychological hangups. If I could just stick an electrode into my brain that would turn off my hangups and let me write for hours and hours at a time without worry, then I totally would.

 

[Harthwain]

I admit that I hate doing writing for myself, but that’s entirely because of my own psychological hangups. If I could just stick an electrode into my brain that would turn off my hangups and let me write for hours and hours at a time without worry, then I totally would.

You can sort-of do that. I know, because I had the exact same problem as you describe when it came to writing. What helped me overcome it was doing an exercise (30 minutes or so) before sitting down to write. After you have something written already it gets easier from there, as it serves as a tangible starting point from there on.

 

[Jarmaro]

Those memes are getting better and better. Imagine what kind of sophisticated memes we can get in a few years once all content creators get knowledgable how to properly use the technology:

 

[Jarmaro]

Now this is interesting, someone fed the AI the original voices from anime Jojo characters and had the AI speak the english subtittles. The quality is so-so of course, but it provides another venue for using the technology: instant translation of medium to every language. Mimicking the same voice and emotion seems relatively simple once you get this tech more advanced, wouldn't be surprising if it's even easier to make in the end. Just imagine, any movie made in any language gets quickly translated by a specialist in what, few hours at most? Then the AI reads the lines in the same voice, but in different language.

No more dubbings: Anime, Movies, Speeches, all of it available in the original style in any language you desire - at least those that have a dedicated translator, which should mean at least a hundred or so. If you forego a human translator and trust in Deep Learning translations then you can cut the time necessary to minutes, if not seconds with the improvement in the technology.

A lot of people refuse to engage with any culture that isn't fully translated into their own language. We could see an eruption of new culture from other countries being treated equally in the general consiousness, not only english ones all the time. What a time to be alive. Children born now might never see a subtittled movie.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Has science gone too far?

Popsci has gone too far with their cringe cartoons for man-children. But this is just an advanced version of Microsoft Sam.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Those memes are getting better and better. Imagine what kind of sophisticated memes we can get in a few years once all content creators get knowledgable how to properly use the technology:

That is extremely accurate killing a dragon with a party of characters who just reached level 5 in 5e. I wonder how many level 3 archdruids they came across.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Has science gone too far?

Popsci has gone too far with their cringe cartoons for man-children. But this is just an advanced version of Microsoft Sam.

Sorry, there's a misunderstanding here.
I don't give a shit about Rick & Morty (never watched more than few occasional clips of it) and even less of your opinion about it.

The closing statement is fucking dumb, though.

 

[Jarmaro]

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Has science gone too far?

Popsci has gone too far with their cringe cartoons for man-children. But this is just an advanced version of Microsoft Sam.

Sorry, there's a misunderstanding here.
I don't give a shit about Rick & Morty (never watched more than few occasional clips of it) and even less of your opinion about it.

The closing statement is fucking dumb, though.

It is just an advanced version of microsoft sam though. After you put in the voice, you just put in text, then it plays it back like microsoft sam.

 

[Lokiamis]

It's pretty funny seeing Baldurs Gate 3 put out a new trailer to announce an expensive big name celebrity voice actor only for him to be criticized for giving a lackluster performance. Meanwhile people can't get enough of an AI replication of a character who had like 5 lines in a 20 year old rpg.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

It's pretty funny seeing Baldurs Gate 3 put out a new trailer to announce an expensive big name celebrity voice actor only for him to be criticized for giving a lackluster performance. Meanwhile people can't get enough of an AI replication of a character who had like 5 lines in a 20 year old rpg.

Who is it?

 

[Lokiamis]

It's pretty funny seeing Baldurs Gate 3 put out a new trailer to announce an expensive big name celebrity voice actor only for him to be criticized for giving a lackluster performance. Meanwhile people can't get enough of an AI replication of a character who had like 5 lines in a 20 year old rpg.

Who is it?

JK Simmons in BG3 and AI Dagoth Ur.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

It is just an advanced version of microsoft sam though. After you put in the voice, you just put in text, then it plays it back like microsoft sam.

"This improved version of text-to-speech tech is just an improved version of older text-to-speech tech.".

Yeah, NO FUCKING SHIT, autistic Sherlock.

The point is where the improvement comes from.
We moved from a flat delivery on a monotone robotic voice to a software that can clone the voice timbre of the sample offered and create variations in tone according to the context of the text.

If you don't understand why that's a whole fucking leap in complexity I don't think you understand what we are even talking about.