A Canadian company is using artificial intelligence techniques to develop artificial sounds that match real voices.
Last month, Bloomberg’s Ashlee Vance interviewed the founder of Lyrebird, a Montreal-based AI company to discuss the software it has developed.
The company recorded Vance's voice and cloned it within minutes. According to the German news agency, the AI version was so realistic that Vance's mother didn't realize she was talking to a computer rather than her son when Vance phoned her.
Lyrebird's technology has already been used to help people, including Pat Quinn, co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Quinn suffers from ALS, or motor neuron disease, which eventually took his voice. Lyrebird used video clips of his speeches to replace the text-to-speech robotic voice he had previously used to communicate.
The CNET.com website warned, however, that cloning voices raises the prospect of potential misuse of the technology.
Vance had used Lyrebird to impersonate President Donald Trump with an artificial voice, raising the possibility of digital mayhem.
Jose Sotelo, co-founder of Lyrebird, said in the video: “We want our technology to be used for positive things. It's not something that we should be afraid of. It's something that we should be enthusiastic about."
This article has been adapted from its original source.
