![]() These avatars can be made to say almost anything a user wants them to. Synthesia’s online studio offers more than 85 avatars who can speak more than 120 languages. This week, Synthesia videos with fabricated content about Venezuela’s economic improvement began trending on YouTube and TikTok. A few weeks ago, a research firm, Graphika, discovered that pro-China campaign videos were generated using Synthesia. For example, in January, someone used Synthesia to generate AI videos expressing support for Burkina Faso’s new military dictatorship. Recently, Synthesia has made a number of headlines for people using its platform to create propaganda videos. Companies that have used the platform include Accenture, Reuters, and BBC. Synthesia told me that some of what its primary clients use the platform for include creating real estate tours and HR training videos for corporations. It says that more than 15,000 businesses have generated "more than 4.5 million videos using our SAAS platform." Synthesia boasts that it has made digital clones of David Beckham and Lionel Messi. Whether it's Obama saying "Killmonger was right," or Mark Zuckerberg saying "whoever controls the data, controls the future," AI is increasingly being used to make people say and do whatever people ask them to. Most of the AI clones I've seen have been in viral deep fake videos of celebrities online. Entering the studio the day of, I had no idea what to expect, other than that I was like an actress responding to a call sheet, ready to do my best improv. Before the shoot, I was given a schedule of “Voice Clone,” “Prep ,” and “Video Performance.” No details beyond that. To create my AI clone, Synthesia told me that we would have to clone my voice and body, and it would take a total of a little over two hours to do so. Or, more grimly, maybe it could host my own funeral someday. Maybe my AI twin could make my job easier. So how about a digital twin to help you out with some of that workflow?," Morelli wrote. What does it mean to be represented as an avatar, one that can eliminate any camera-shyness and always look camera-ready even if I’m not? “Journalism is busy at the best of times - absolutely chaotic at worst. While I will die someday, an AI that looks and sounds like me will not (assuming the service stays online.) It could also theoretically be used to make me say things I don't agree with.īut I was also intrigued.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |