Adobe Voco: Industry Disruption or World Destruction?

1

October

2017

5/5 (3)

During Adobe’s Sneak Peeks event last November, a new product was announced, named Voco. Said to be the ‘Photoshop of voice’ the program was demonstrated by an Adobe engineer and Jordan Peele, from comedic duo Key and Peele.

The engineer used a sample from Key’s voice and began manipulating it enthusiastically. What started off with Key saying ‘I kissed my dogs and my wife’ was changed several times. The various versions of Key’s words were met with laughter from the audience, but the final version; ‘I kissed Jordan three times’ did seem to make Peele somewhat uncomfortable.

The above situation seems innocent; some might even find it funny.
But will Voco bring us any good?

Voice manipulation is not a novelty, especially not when used to serve a comedic purpose. Among examples are the infamous videos of President Obama singing to pop songs during his speeches.

But what if our goal isn’t laughter and this tool falls in the wrong hands. What if Voco is used to make Donald Trump say he will fire missiles towards North Korea? In this day of age, where fake news is daily news and the POTUS thinks out loud 140 characters at a time, how will we tell what is real and what is not?

Technological disruptions are usually a driving force for progression and improvement, but the time has to be right for it. Governments and regulatory bodies across the world are still struggling to regulate past disruptive forces, such as Facebook and Uber. So how will this ‘Photoshop for voice’ be regulated?

Maybe 2017 isn’t the right time for Adobe Voco. Maybe the right time will never come. Maybe it is time to change our naïve view on disruptive technologies and ask ourselves if they are really making our world a better place.

References:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-15/tech-industry-disruption-ideas-that-shouldnt-see-light-of-day/8948220
https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/07/disruptive-innovation

by Nikki Sonneveld (382290)

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The rise of the Platform Economy

27

September

2016

5/5 (1)

Technological enterprises and companies that started in the digital age, such as Google, Alibaba, and Amazon have understood the power of digital technologies. However, most of these companies’ disruptive innovations are not services or products, they are in fact the platforms that form the foundation for these products and service. This is called a platform-based business model and it changes the way how companies can do business. It results in a system that does much of the work to grow the company (quickly) by itself.

The three main reasons for the success of these platform-based business models are:

  1. Network effects: This exists when two user groups (in most cases, consumer, and producer) generate network value for each other, resulting in joint benefits that increase demand-side economies of scale. The network effects of these platforms, with increasing connected transactions and users, push value creation.
  2. Distribution power law: Platform business models enable a much larger scale. This is done by allowing third parties to sell products in the long tail, avoiding diminishing returns usually associated with these products. E.g. Amazon is able to offer books very specifically tailored for a niche market that would never be sold in regular book shops.
  3. Asymmetric growth: This is the principle of driving demand for their core market through complementary markets, by subsidizing these, or even offering them for free, to users. An example of this is Adobe offering their PDF readers for free to its users. Because of the resulting increased use of Adobe’s pdf reader, producers are willing to pay more to be able to distribute PDF files.

Accenture’s Technology Vision 2016 names platform economy as one of the key trends to watch. It mentions that every company will, eventually, need a platform strategy. They will need such a strategy not only for the growth of their business, but also to be able to fight off the platform-based competition.

 

Sources:

Technology Trends 2016 – Accenture Technology Vision. Retrieved September 26, 2016, from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-technology-trends-2016

 

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