David Vendrell reporting for The Future Party: “DeepZen revives voice actors for audiobooks using AI”

DeepZen, an AI company that has developed a system that can create deepfake audio recordings of living and dead voice actors, used it to bring back Edward Herrmann from the dead to read audio books.

The renowned actor’s family licensed his famed voice (he won awards for narrating audiobooks) to DeepZen to be used for new audiobooks. The company has already made hundreds of audiobooks using Herrmann’s voice.

Meanwhile, and in very much related news, Gene Marks reporting for The Guardian: *“It sounds like science fiction but it’s not: AI can financially destroy your business”

Using essentially the same technology of training an AI speech synthesis system on a particular voice, cybercriminals are using it to defraud consumers.

Using deepfake AI technology, scammers last year stole approximately $11m from unsuspecting consumers by fabricating the voices of loved ones, doctors and attorneys requesting money from their relatives and friends. “All [the scammer] needs is a short audio clip of your family member’s voice – which he could get from content posted online – and a voice-cloning program,” the FTC says. “When the scammer calls you, he’ll sound just like your loved one.”

Brave new world.