🎤 Your Voice Can Officially Be Cloned

Hello, fellow nerds 🧙

Ah, April Fools… The worst day of the year, especially when writing about the news. Not only is it a slow news day in the world of AI, but the clickbait is unreal.

We’ll be honest, we definitely got Rick Rolled. We’re not proud of it, but boy this would’ve been wild if it were true.

Here’s the daily quests in AI to complete today:

• 🎤 You Can Clone Your Voice in 15 Seconds

• 🍎 Apple’s Siri Might Finally Be Useful

• 🍦 AI Created an Actual Ice Cream Flavor

• 🐕️ Hiking With Dogs is So Last Week

Clone Your Voice Quicker Than Buttering Toast

Well, OpenAI has just totally upped the ante with its latest creation: a voice cloning AI that can replicate your voice with just a 15-second sample.

Check it out:

What’s even cooler? It can translate your voice into any language.

Can you get your hands on it?

The answer to that riddle is not quite yet.

While the company is keeping all the technical details under wraps, they did give us a glimpse into how it works. The AI breaks down your voice into tiny units called "tokens" and then uses its digital sorcery to put them back together, creating a voice that sounds just like you.

Now, before you start worrying about voice cloning falling into the hands of the Sith, OpenAI assures us they're working on ways to detect AI-generated voices. They're also keeping the model close to their chest for now, so you won't find your voice clone running wild on the internet…yet.

But the potential applications for this tech are mind-boggling. Imagine having a virtual assistant who sounds exactly like you or being able to "speak" in your own voice even if you've lost the ability to talk. And hey, if you've ever dreamed of having your own podcast but hate the sound of your own voice, this AI might just be perfect for you.

So, while the thought of a machine copying your voice might seem a bit eerie at first, the possibilities are endless.

And who knows – in the future, we might all have our own digital voice assistants who can answer phone calls for us or take our place in meetings.

Apple’s Siri Might Finally Be Useful

And it’s about f*cking time.

When I’m at home, Alexa gives me full control of everything from my lights to my thermostat… but my phone on the other hand. Give me a break.

Apple’s Siri has been lacking since launch. And it’s not for the reasons you may think. Siri’s been able to call Pops or search for the closest pizza joint. But what it appears to lack, is reference.

It doesn’t understand how to “give directions to the one on George Street” or “call the last one on the list.”

This requires the ability to understand natural language as well as having a strong understanding of what is on the screen, not just as data, but how a human would interpret what they see.

In the latest research paper released by Apple, ReALM is a language model that understands the context of information using on-device data.

To understand context, ReALM uses entities:

• Onscreen Entities - What’s currently shown on the screen.

• Conversational Entities - What might be relevant to gain context, such as “Call Pops” would use the contact information for Pops.

• Background Entities - Relevant entities from background processes which may not be relevant. For instance, music playing in the background.

Throughout testing, Apple believes ReALM outperforms GPT-4 for domain-specific user utterances.

The best part? This LLM would run locally off your phone. Amen!

🧠 Tuesday Trivia

A little brain treat for ya.

Question:
Can you name the AI that created a new flavor of ice cream, and what was the flavor?

Hint: IBM

(Answer at the bottom)

Daily Delight

Just something fun and interesting around the web.

Hiking with dogs is so last week.

What’s happening inside the Realm

A list of side quests to explore and more.

• 🎂 Apple just turned the big 4-8, and it totally has us reminiscing on one of our favorite Steve Jobs speeches.

• 🕶️ Meta's giving RayBans a futuristic facelift with a dash of AI. Now you can look cool and talk to your glasses at the same time. Just don't blame us if people start giving you weird looks on the street.

• 📖 Kindle lock screens are being taken over by ads of AI-generated books that are apparently copies of popular Amazon titles.

• 🎓️ A new study is warning against using AI detection tools in higher education. Apparently, AI isn’t the best at sniffing out plagiarism, after all.

That’s all the quests we have for today. Check back tomorrow for more!

Trivia answer: In 2017, IBM's Watson created a brand new flavor of ice cream called "Bourbon Barbecue Chicken".

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