13230: The Moving Target Of AI
Hey there, hero!
Every new advance (decline?) in the development of new AI tools can lead to more and more anxiety for performers.
It can also lead to more options for our performance careers.
This episode is designed to take a look at both the threat and the promise of AI and synthetic voices and faces in 2025.
(If you’re watching this episode just a few months after it was published, this is all likely old news…but how to handle it as an actor, VO talent or writer is not.)
Thoughts on AI? Questions on synthetic performance? Let me know in the comments below.
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Raw transcript:
Raw transcript:
i think it’s time for my semiannual
talking everybody down off the roof
thing about how we’re reacting to the
constantly moving target of artificial
intelligence and synthetic voices let’s
do that in this episode of the VO Heroes
podcast
so once again for the past year we’ve
seen dozens if not hundreds of
developments in the AI space that matter
to us as talent people signing contracts
to license their
voices
uh apps coming and going apps being
accused and and large uh learning
language models uh being accused of
plagiarism everything that a fit or a
start of a developing market would
suffer with we’ve suffered with this
past year and so has the artificial
intelligence market suffered with it and
I just want to remind you this will be a
constantly moving target for a long long
long time
what we’re experiencing now is nothing
like the landscape we’ll be experiencing
in another couple of years certainly not
5 to 10
years so when we worry about things that
we can’t control or try to make
decisions based on metrics that are not
in our purview and not able to be
adjusted by us it can be really mentally
draining really mentally
threatening and I just want you to give
yourself some
grace um you may end up as has happened
in the world of digital technology for
decades you may end up with something
you never expected i never expected to
be able to make the kind of money that I
made with IVR based on something that I
couldn’t have predicted a meeting with
one of the original employees at America
Online i I wouldn’t have been able to
say that i wouldn’t have been able to
say I’d have the kind of success in
audiobooks that I’d had uh based on
developing a a system and a process for
producing them quicker and then having
classes and courses that have been given
to thousands of people and created
thousands of books i couldn’t have
predicted any of that but it was all
possible was something that in the
beginning was you know fists were being
shaken at digital audio workstations
killing realtore tape and analog mixing
consoles so everything old is new again
and the bottom line here
is there is very little that any of us
can do about this we can rail against
the heavens if we want to and be
righteously indignant and you know for
moral reasons be uh have a particular
attitude about technology and its use
and will there be pluses and minuses
positives and negatives in terms of the
use of technology
absolutely but I want to give you the
option of really stepping back for a
moment not capitulating not surrendering
but understanding that the more
knowledge you can gain on a calm basis
the better equipped you’ll be when that
target moves so what do you
think watch what’s going on try not to
waste your personal energy on you know
shaking your fist at the heavens and
just look at what’s happening look at
what’s going on and also ask yourself
did the doomsayers
have have it right 2 years ago 3 years
ago four years ago are the people that
are saying there’s going to be a writing
of the ship actually are they on to
something pay attention to the balance
here of what’s going on and be open to
the possibility that there may be some
positives from this and to protect
yourself from the negatives and I’ll
help you i promise i promise I’ll help
you tell me what you think about all
this tell me what you think about all
this i’d love to know put it in the
comments below if you’re on vioheres.com
go there if you’re not there uh we’d
love to have you in the conversation
there hit the like button if you like
what you’re hearing uh you can subscribe
to the channel you can click the
notification bell to be told when the
next episode comes out i’m David H
lawrence the 17th i thank you so much
for watching and for listening and I
invite you to join me for the next
episode of the VO Heroes podcast
(from YouTube)
I’ll admit I’m biased, but I’ve come to the point where almost as soon as I hear an AI voice on a YT video (and it typically only takes a few seconds), I close it and move on. It’s just so irritating to hear a voice with that weird phrasing and lack of comprehension of what it’s saying.
Want to beat it? ACT! Be a good actor. No AI today, nor for a long time, I believe, can possible compete with that. Those who care will appreciate it; those who don’t, you don’t need to be concerned with.
Just my $0.02′ worth.
Changes can be scary and the people who like to stir up crazy are at work every time there is change. However, AI will be like everything else: some people will love it, some will hate it and some will accept that different people like different things. As an actor I know that sometimes I will fit a director’s vision of a part and sometimes, I won’t. As a narrator…same thing. AI does not have to ruin things, and I plan on not jumping off a bridge just because Chicken Little thinks the sky is falling. I plan to keep discovering more about who I am and what I can contribute to the world around me, as a human- type entity.
Agreed. Ride the course calmly, learn as we go & who knows where the next best opportunity lies … And I concur Vicky!
Who Moved My Cheese?