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Lawmaker Jennifer Wexton - diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, which makes it difficult for her to speak - uses AI voice clone to address Congress (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 months ago by tardigrada to c/usnews

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Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton used a artificial intelligence (AI) programme to address the House on Thursday. A year ago, the lawmaker was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, which makes it difficult for her to speak.

The AI programme allowed Wexton to make a clone of her speaking voice using old recordings of appearances and speeches she made in Congress. Wexton appears to be the first person to speak on the House floor with a voice recreated by AI.

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[–] ulkesh 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is a valid problem to solve with AI. I sure wish CEOs of all the moron companies jumping on the AI buzzword bandwagon would take note that AI should be for real problems to solve, not just to hitch a ride on the train and hope your stock goes up.

[–] millie 4 points 3 months ago

That would require executives to be capable of generating actual value rather than burning it for short term profits.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Is it following her real voice in real time, or is the script preprepared?

[–] tardigrada 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That's a good question non of the articles I found on the web is answering. But Ms. Wexton spoke to the Time magazine also using the device, and the magazine says:

During the interview at her dining room table in Leesburg, Virginia, the congresswoman typed out her thoughts, used a stylus to move the text around, hit play and then the AI program put that text into Wexton’s voice. It's a lengthy process, so the AP provided Wexton with a few questions ahead of the interview to give the congresswoman time to type her answers.

Source: A Neurological Disorder Stole Her Voice. Jennifer Wexton Took It Back With AI on the House Floor

[Edit typo.]

[–] Visikde 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

At least Wexton supplied some of the data to make it all work
I wonder where the data to develop the program came from?
Can AI be developed ethically? or do the datasets have to be so large the job requires pilfered data?

[–] averyminya 2 points 3 months ago

TTS voice models have been around while now and don't require much more than a 5 second sample of the voice data. TTS Tortise, among many, many others, for example.