Sam Vervier

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Tom Cruise on TikTok, Trump having a baby with Kamala Harris, or even Barack Obama talking nonsense (Catherine Mackay, 2019)—celebrities are increasingly impacted by Deepfake technology.

Deepfake is a remarkable combination of AI voice generation, AI lip-syncing, AI image generation, and other advanced AI software. Together, they create a convincing replica, or “deep fake,” of anyone with enough digital content available online—which includes almost every celebrity or influencer.

In this blogpost, I will explain a new intriguing application that I discovered last year. Like many of you , I have seen these videos where we can see celebrities talking and saying obvious fake news. This intrigues me, and I did some research on the different technologies I could use for myself, and the voice generator was something very intriguing, to say the least.

Today, there are popular applications like ElevenLabs, which lets you create highly convincing voices or sound effects, and FakeYou, which mimics famous people or characters.

ElevenLabs has already been helpful for one of my academic projects. One challenge when recording a video is that without professional equipment, the audio quality can seem amateur. But with this AI software, you can generate a professional-sounding voice and easily integrate it into your workflow. The software allows for a range of adjustments, such as making the voice more enthusiastic or angry, or changing the speed of the narration (as you can hear in Audio Clip 1). The platform even provides background sound effects—like in the Audio Clip 2 where I requested a bustling cityscape with people chatting and cars passing by.

(Audio Clip 1)

(Audio Clip 2)

On the other hand, FakeYou is more about fun at the moment. The voices aren’t as clear and don’t offer as much customization as ElevenLabs, but it lets you choose a character or personality and have them say whatever you want. In Audio Clip 3, for example, I used the voice of SpongeBob.

(Audio clip 3)

In conclusion, I encourage you to explore these tools—whether it’s just for fun with FakeYou or for more professional uses with ElevenLabs. Both offer exciting possibilities, and you can create a professional voiceover without breaking the bank!

Reference

Catherine Mackay. (2019, September 16). DeepFake Obama JordanPeele Short [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on7wVajA9Qs

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Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and X (previously Twitter) all have one thing in common: we connect with friends, followers, or subscribers. Yet, for most of us, we will never reach the stage of celebrity where every post is directly responded to by dozens of messages. What if I tell you that a brand-new application can solve that? Social.AI puts you in the center of attention by giving you AI-powered bot followers that will engage with any of your posts.

As dystopian as it may sound, it’s hardly surprising that artificial intelligence has entered the field of social media, given the technology’s expansion. With new platforms like ChatGPT having more than 600 million visits per month (Duarte, 2024). AI is becoming an integral part of our daily lives.

Social.AI first seems like X, a well-known site where people share ideas, opinions, and posts. The difference is that you are interacting with a community of AI bots who are eager to respond to anything you say, rather than with actual people. In essence, SocialAI provides a social environment in which the user is the center of attention. No quiet on the radio, no ghosting. The designed bots are constantly available, prepared to offer advice and support, engage in discussion, or even engage in trolling.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Michael Sayman, the platform’s founder, calls it “liberating.” He clarifies that his goal was to provide a secure environment where people could communicate in private with one another and get input from a variety of AI characters. Users may choose from 32 distinct bot “types” on the app, ranging from adoring admirers to sardonic critics, depending on the kind of response they’re looking for (Lomas, 2024).

After some tries, some of us will feel more at ease knowing that there is still work to be done on this app before it can be said to compete against mainstream social media platforms. As you can see from the figures (Figures 1 and 2), each bot has a distinct personality, and you can easily perceive that the answer is from an AI chatbot, as they feel very oriented towards certain behaviors.

Ultimately, Social.AI is not perfect yet, but it serves as a reminder of how AI can reshape social spaces. Even if this application is not on point, it reminds us that progress is not stopping and asks us a deeper question: As AI continues to evolve, do we want to be the stars of lifeless computers?

References:

Duarte, F. (2024, July 27). Number of ChatGPT Users (Aug 2024). Exploding Topics. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/chatgpt-users Lomas, N. (2024, September 17). SocialAI offers a Twitter-like diary where AI bots respond to your posts.

TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/17/socialai-offers-a-twitter-like-diary-where-ai-bots-respond-to-your-posts/

From Deepfakes to Professional Projects: The Role of AI Voice Technology

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