15 seconds of voice recording is enough – then the AI program “Voice Engine” should be able to clone a voice. ChatGPT developer OpenAI now presented the technology. Because of the election year, he doesn’t want to release it for the time being.
The developer company behind ChatGPT has unveiled technology for cloning real voices. The program can imitate a human voice within 15 seconds of recording a voice, OpenAI said.
The new tool is called “Voice Engine”. The company recently registered the technology as a trademark.
Risk of misuse
Due to security concerns, “Voice Engine” will not be brought onto the market initially. The plan is to test the product with preliminary testers, but widespread release of this technology is currently not planned due to the risk of misuse.
“We recognize that generating voices that resemble human voices poses serious risks,” the company said. These should be particularly taken into account in an election year. We work with partners from the areas of politics, media, entertainment, education and civil society, among others, and their feedback is taken into account during development.
Experts fear misuse of applications that use artificial intelligence (AI). This year, among other things, European elections and the US presidential election will take place. There are a growing number of voice cloning programs that are cheap, easy to use, and difficult to track.
“Cautious” approach to wider release
OpenAI stated that it is aware of these issues. Due to the potential for misuse of synthetic voices, the company has decided to take a “cautious” approach to wider release. Partners who tested “Voice Engine” agreed to rules. These therefore require, among other things, the express consent of every person whose voice is duplicated by the program. In addition, it must be made clear to listeners that the voices they hear were generated by AI.
In the US state of New Hampshire, authorities are investigating calls generated by artificial intelligence in which President Joe Biden’s voice was imitated in order to stop people from voting in the local primary election in January.