Meta says its new speech-generating AI tool is too dangerous to release

Date:
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Description:
Meta reveals impressive speech-generation AI tool Voicebox, but its not available to the public yet - heres why.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Meta has unveiled a new AI tool, dubbed Voicebox, which it claims represents
a breakthrough in AI-powered speech generation. However, the company wont be unleashing it on the public just yet - because doing so could be disastrous.

Voicebox is currently able to produce audio clips of speech in six languages (all of which are European of origin), and - according to a blog post from Meta - is the first AI model of its kind capable of completing tasks beyond what it was specifically trained to accomplish. Meta claims that Voicebox handily outperforms competing speech-generation AIs in virtually every area.

So what exactly is it capable of? Well, for starters, it can spew out reasonably accurate text-to-speech replications of a persons voice using a sample audio file as short as two seconds, a seemingly innocuous ability that holds a huge amount of destructive potential in the wrong hands. The dubious power of AI

Even setting aside the dodgy stuff that creeps on the internet have been
doing with ChatGPT and other AI tools (Voicebox certainly sounds like it
could be a boon for anyone making fake revenge porn), this is the sort of technology that could quite literally start a war.

After all, most major public figures, including politicians, have plenty of audio recordings floating around the internet. It wouldnt be hard to collate some speech clips of an incumbent political leader and use Voicebox to
produce a startlingly realistic replication of their voice - something that could then be used for nefarious purposes. Big Zuck (sorry, 'Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg') has been investing heavily in AI development at Meta for years now. (Image credit: Facebook)

Such tools exist already, of course, but theyre less convincing; you may have seen amusing videos on social media featuring the likes of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama supposedly playing Fortnite together. Its good for a laugh, but the audio is hardly convincing. It mimics the mannerisms of each presidential gamer enough that theyre recognizable, but not so well that anyone with a brain would actually believe its them.

Meta clearly believes its new tool is good enough to fool at least the majority of people, though - since its explicitly not releasing Voicebox to the public, but instead publishing a research paper and detailing a
classifier tool that can identify Voicebox-generated speech from real human speech. Meta describes the classifier as highly effective - though notably
not perfectly effective. Speaking machines

Of course, while Meta is keen to stress that it recognizes the potential for misuse and unintended harm surrounding tools like Voicebox, its important not to lose sight of the potential benefits AI speech generation could have in
the future.

Voicebox - befitting its name - could provide far more naturalistic speech to people who are mute or otherwise unable to communicate, removing some of the barriers to interaction caused by the existing text-to-speech robot voice
made famous by physicist Stephen Hawking. It could also perform real-time translation, bringing us one step closer to the sort of universal translator devices that currently exist only in science fiction. Instagram - which is owned by Meta - could prove to be a successful home for Voicebox, improving and translating videos for a wider audience. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

There are other applications too; smaller, but no less useful. Meta explains in its blog post that Voicebox can be used to edit and improve recorded speech. If youve recorded some audio but you mispronounced a word or were interrupted by background noise, Voicebox can isolate the offending segment and re-record a snippet of speech using your voice. Impressive, and only slightly terrifying.

In any case, its good to see Meta taking a serious, considered approach here. Microsofts frantic eagerness to shove Bing AI into everything has landed it
in hot water more than once, and OpenAI unleashing ChatGPT on the world has led to all sorts of weirdness over the past year. Were in an AI gold rush,
and these tools are making their way into every part of our lives .

A little caution, patience, and respect for the magnitude of this technology is a welcome sight - although I doubt Meta will sit on Voicebox for too long, since the shareholders will no doubt be wondering how much money it can make them



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/meta-says-its-new-speech-generating-ai-tool-is- too-dangerous-to-release


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)