[HN Gopher] Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic me...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Voice clone of Anthony Bourdain prompts synthetic media ethics
       questions
        
       Author : andreyk
       Score  : 132 points
       Date   : 2021-07-16 18:20 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (techpolicy.press)
 (TXT) w3m dump (techpolicy.press)
        
       | somehnacct3757 wrote:
       | They probably knew some people wouldn't like it, which is exactly
       | why they used it, because look at all the free publicity they're
       | getting now.
        
         | alexilliamson wrote:
         | This statement perfectly describes the last decade in America.
        
       | hellbannedguy wrote:
       | Out of all the celebrities, Bourdain would have viscerally
       | despised this.
       | 
       | He hated fake phoney people, or food.
       | 
       | He hated when his production crew would stovepipe his bits.
       | 
       | He hated a scene in Greese (I believe) where crew went out and
       | bought squid, and threw them into the water to made the shoot
       | better.
       | 
       | I really liked Bourdain. He was one of the few celebrities that
       | didn't seem to change with fame, or money.
       | 
       | I watched him for years, and knew he was unhappy, but never
       | thought suicide unhappy.
        
         | nailer wrote:
         | The bone luge thing was completely made up. The restaurant
         | didn't do bone luges. It's mentioned explicitly in World
         | Travel.
         | 
         | I have no problem with a fake voice reading Bourdain's own
         | words.
        
         | ceocoder wrote:
         | Just quick context on the squid bit: it wasn't Tony's crew
         | (zero point zero productions), it was the combination of local
         | fixers/boat folks who wanted to make it look like they caught
         | fish.
        
           | holler wrote:
           | Funny enough, him describing the ploy while sort of mocking
           | it as it happened led to an enjoyable moment in that episode
           | (imo). It showcased his humility, and ability to make the
           | most out of a situation while not taking himself too
           | seriously.
        
             | distrill wrote:
             | That's one of my favorite scenes. He is so angry drunk and
             | it's his birthday and you can tell he doesn't like the chef
             | at all (the chef is the same guy who took them out
             | "fishing" earlier in the day).
        
             | ceocoder wrote:
             | Thing is, more I rewatch his shows, all of his comments
             | about depression and anger have taken a really somber tone
             | now given what we know. I wish someone was there with him
             | to help him through through that time.
             | 
             | His death really affected me in a deep way I didn't expect.
             | I miss him so much.
        
               | FireBeyond wrote:
               | One of the other big scenes like that is up-river in SE
               | Asia, talking about "how he wished that he could say it
               | would be difficult [to kill a pig with a spear], but that
               | time and distance have hardened the person he once was".
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | wavefunction wrote:
           | I enjoyed the running gag (based on many episodes) of
           | Bourdain going on a local fishing/hunting trip and failing to
           | catch anything, and then having to scramble to some other
           | local place and make up for the lack of a catch which some
           | times were some of the highlights of the episode. And then on
           | rare occasions when they did catch their prey, it made for a
           | nice juxtaposition.
        
         | porknubbins wrote:
         | That was the Sicily episode- Bourdain wanted to show the ugly,
         | scammy underbelly of Sicily I think. This kind of thing is
         | there in a lot of the Mediterranean, but it unfairly makes all
         | of Sicily look bad. I had a bad impression of the whole island
         | until I learned more about it years later. Sicily is mostly
         | nice with a few pockets of unsavoriness like anywhere, not a
         | mafia island. In my opinion too many episodes are like that-
         | projection of a certain fantasy about a place while ostensibly
         | engaging with the real authentic experience.
        
         | jacobkg wrote:
         | Agree 100%. Also just watched this episode last night, it was
         | Sicily (Season 2)
        
           | basisword wrote:
           | Important to point out it wasn't the crew faking the scene.
           | The guy that took him fishing had a friend throwing squid in,
           | unashamedly. They showed the guy on camera. There was no
           | attempt at trickery from the people producing the show.
        
         | andy_ppp wrote:
         | As I understand it (I read this on Twitter so massive grain of
         | salt etc.) the family concented to this explicitly. Would you
         | feel better if it was a voice actor who could read Bourdain's
         | email in a perfect mimic? What about historical recreations,
         | would you object to computers being involved in, say,
         | recreating Abraham Lincoln's voice? Does the age of the subject
         | matter?
         | 
         | I think the squeamishness about AI as it becomes more and more
         | capable will be interesting to define why we are feeling it.
         | The machine is going to be capable of (and consequently used to
         | do) these things whether you like it or not.
        
           | ineptech wrote:
           | Any of those are fine - with disclosure. It seems pretty
           | clear that in this case, they were less than transparent.
           | 
           | > "If you watch the film, other than that line you mentioned,
           | you probably don't know what the other lines are that were
           | spoken by the A.I., and you're not going to know," Neville
           | told the reviewer, Helen Rosner. "We can have a documentary-
           | ethics panel about it later."
           | 
           | ...or we can have it sooner, on Twitter, and you'll get
           | excoriated, and rightly so. I don't care if they train an AI
           | to imitate Bourdain rapping the third verse from _Modern
           | Major General_ , it's a free country, but you have to be
           | honest about it. You can't call yourself a documentarian and
           | get cutesy about the authenticity of the material.
        
           | briefcomment wrote:
           | His widow did not provide consent [1].
           | 
           | [1] https://twitter.com/OttaviaBourdain/status/14158894550057
           | 164...
        
             | andy_ppp wrote:
             | Cool, great to get that clarified but also good to see I
             | didn't invent the fact they _claimed_ to have asked.
        
           | virtue3 wrote:
           | Historical recreations are fine.
           | 
           | Creating a digital voice model of abraham lincoln and then
           | using it for ??? is not.
           | 
           | All of this is being done for profit means (the orville
           | redenbacher, fast furious, star wars).
           | 
           | Just because we can doesn't mean we shouldn't stop and think
           | if we should.
        
             | andy_ppp wrote:
             | On which timescale does something become historical? Are
             | the Beatles historical, to you maybe not but possibly to
             | your children? Where is the line you're drawing?
             | 
             | If I'm honest humans have never done the moral thinking, we
             | largely just middle through and hope to get away with it.
        
               | tayo42 wrote:
               | Idk if historical is based on time. I think intention is
               | more important. if you recreate the Beatles purely for
               | profit then it seems unethical and disrespectful. if you
               | want to keep someone's voice for record keeping or
               | something educational that seems different
        
               | patrickthebold wrote:
               | Time doesn't matter as much as what is said. Fake Anthony
               | Bourdain voice reading something he wrote seems fine to
               | me, especially in the context of, say, a documentary.
               | 
               | John Lennon's voice doing an ad for Vox amps seems in
               | poor taste.
        
         | two2two wrote:
         | After reading his books, I would agree and was hoping someone
         | had posted this. If anyone would vehemently oppose such
         | manipulation, it would be Anthony Bourdain. Is there a
         | disclaimer before this scene is shown? I'll choose not to watch
         | such a documentary created by those with skewed ethics.
        
           | AutumnCurtain wrote:
           | There does not seem to be any disclaimer regarding the
           | manipulation, and the OP article questions whether the
           | director would even have mentioned it had it not come up
           | tangentially in the course of this interview.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | enriquto wrote:
       | what is the difference to drawing him on a fictional painting? or
       | edit a photo?
       | 
       | People who complain about that sound a bit like those mythical
       | tribes that are afraid of photographs because they may rob their
       | soul.
       | 
       | EDIT: i'm not sure that this is wrong, only confused
        
       | tqi wrote:
       | Is this different than getting a voice actor?
        
       | tptacek wrote:
       | I get why this is newsworthy, but I don't get why it's an ethical
       | problem. How is it any different from hiring a really good
       | Bourdain impersonator to read the email? Lots of celebrities have
       | pitch-perfect impersonators; is this a thing we worried about
       | when it wasn't AI doing the impersonation?
        
       | OhWellLol wrote:
       | Wait until you learn about using deep fakes to trigger Blackmail
       | Inflation
       | 
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xlmhhh9HYqc
        
       | bellBivDinesh wrote:
       | Putting words in dead peoples mouths is unpopular. Shocking.
        
       | causality0 wrote:
       | I don't get why this is controversial. Documentaries constantly
       | have someone reading a written document while imitating the voice
       | of the author, and none of them come out and say "This is not the
       | actual voice of Abraham Lincoln". Why is having a computer
       | imitate someone's voice different from having a person do it?
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | Because Lincoln has been dead for 172 years, and lived before
         | audio recording, so no one who could fog a mirror would think
         | that it was his voice.
         | 
         | Bourdain didn't die that long ago, and made many recordings. It
         | certainly is confusing.
        
         | usefulcat wrote:
         | It's pretty obvious why you will never hear any recordings of
         | Lincoln's voice. In comparison, it most certainly could be
         | Bourdain's voice here so it's not at all obvious that it isn't.
        
       | httpz wrote:
       | There are ethical concerns but I think we'll just learn to live
       | with it. Forging signatures are easy and have been around forever
       | but signatures are still used for very important purposes (even
       | electronically now!). It may take a while for the legal system to
       | catch up and using voice recordings as evidence may be tricker
       | than before.
       | 
       | But on a more exciting front, I think synthetic voice can be made
       | like fonts. Celebrities and voice actors will be able to sell
       | their synthetic voice like how fonts are sold today. You'll be
       | able to change the voice of your Alexa, Siri to a voice you
       | downloaded from a marketplace. Netflix may even let you select
       | the narrator's voice for your favorite documentary. Hundreds of
       | years later, people may be watching a documentary in Morgan
       | Freeman's voice while having no idea that he was actually a
       | famous actor in the past.
        
         | BrandoElFollito wrote:
         | Signatures used for very important purposes are only
         | decoration. They must be used in conjunction with something
         | else (a notary, an independent exchange that confirms that the
         | signature is actually binding, etc.).
         | 
         | The electronic signature is completely different: there is no
         | visible artefact anymore, but a process that seals a document
         | and (under appropriate legislation), certifies that the signer
         | is who he is. A visual object is sometimes added for aesthetic
         | purposes.
        
           | httpz wrote:
           | What you listed are just ways we've learned to live with the
           | forgeable nature of signatures. Now voice recordings (and
           | even videos) will have a similar fate in the future.
        
       | mcculley wrote:
       | This is an interesting problem. I thought and wrote a little
       | about this a few years ago:
       | https://enki.org/2017/03/02/historical-narrators/
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | iandanforth wrote:
       | This recently got worse, they claimed to have the OK from his
       | widow. Turns out not so much ...
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/OttaviaBourdain/status/14158894550057164...
        
         | minsc__and__boo wrote:
         | They really need a way for someone to trademark their voice.
        
       | yohannparis wrote:
       | As a viewer of the documentary, I will love that effect instead
       | of a bland voice-over. But a note should be added on the screen
       | that the voice is AI-generated. Like when they say a war video is
       | a reenactment.
        
         | pankajdoharey wrote:
         | It would be interesting to see if recreating songs is possible,
         | if so i would like to hear the voice of Jim morrison and Curt
         | Cobain.
        
           | rbalicki wrote:
           | https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nirvana-
           | ku... I don't remember if these songs had lyrics, but there
           | are AI generated songs in the style of Cobain and Jim
           | Morrison
        
             | rbalicki wrote:
             | Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1-B3M_KaRQ
             | 
             | It does contain lyrics, but the singing is not AI
             | generated.
        
           | 3wolf wrote:
           | Would you settle for Ronald Reagan?
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAZVp-n-5TM
        
             | adventured wrote:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gvsD11_z1k
        
           | caseyohara wrote:
           | AI-generated Nirvana song:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GogY7RQFFus
        
           | genewitch wrote:
           | I have a machine with two GPUs and a frozen OS with a
           | tensorflow python app that clones voices, and I'd say the
           | quality passes if you run it through a phone bandpass filter.
           | 
           | I've had an idea to use propellerhead recycle to chop the
           | output cloned voice into syllables, and then "play" the
           | chopped parts in rhythm, through autotune.
           | 
           | The issue is you get Eifel 65 sounding autotune if your base
           | vocals are monotonic or way off key. The only way I can think
           | of fixing this is to use something like audacity's pitch
           | changer that doesn't affect the speed of the sample - rough
           | the lyrical tones in with audacity/recycle, then autotune it
           | where it needs to go.
           | 
           | I'd like to say I'm too busy to get this workflow going, but
           | mostly I'm lazy and someone else will do it first - and
           | better - I can't improve the AI cloning software.
        
             | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
             | > The only way I can think of fixing this is to use
             | something like audacity's pitch changer that doesn't affect
             | the speed of the sample
             | 
             | Check out Ableton Live's "Simpler"
        
             | ethbr0 wrote:
             | You should message @echelon on HN. ;)
             | 
             | https://vo.codes/
        
               | echelon wrote:
               | Oh hi!
               | 
               | I've had a new version of this in the works for a few
               | months. It'll launch maybe this weekend?
               | 
               | It supports user-trained data sets, which should be
               | pretty neat.
               | 
               | Your approach sounds kind of like unit selection or
               | vocaloid.
        
           | xkeysc0re wrote:
           | You should watch The Doors movie by Oliver Stone starring Val
           | Kilmer. Much of the music, including vocals, was redone with
           | Val singing. It can be quite unsettling at times
        
           | ipsum2 wrote:
           | https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/ it is, but its not great
           | yet.
        
         | MrMetlHed wrote:
         | Why would it have to be a bland voice-over? It's an email he
         | sent to a friend. Have the friend read it. I imagine the friend
         | would become emotional. That's far more riveting than a
         | computer recreation, no?
        
         | jamestimmins wrote:
         | Agreed, this whole issue could be solved with a message before
         | the film runs about how the voiceover is created, and then a
         | "recreation" label during that scene.
        
           | godelski wrote:
           | I don't think so. There are still other ethical
           | considerations. Bourdain likely would not have liked this, as
           | others in the thread point out. So it is weird to honor
           | someone with a documentary but not honor their wishes
        
             | 37r7dyysy wrote:
             | What makes those considerations significant enough to be
             | worth the effort of evaluating though? It's too late to
             | stop the tech from existing, there's no individuals
             | actually being harmed, and even if you find a framework for
             | arguing harm that's compelling the end-game is just going
             | to be updated contracts which demand rights to use the
             | performer's likeness for these sorts of purposes. The
             | dialogue just seems like a lot of opining for the sake of
             | itself with a fashionable hint of 21st century doom-cult
             | luddism. I guess maybe the unions might have a reason to
             | worry but I don't have a lot of sympathy for unions
             | representing millionaires.
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | Disclaimers help. And it's not like they were making up
           | words. But I still feel it was probably a poor creative
           | choice.
        
             | KONAir wrote:
             | I suppose a spoken line at the begining along the lines of
             | it is not that person, but a generated voice, would be the
             | best solution.
        
       | Grimm1 wrote:
       | I think with correct context and or the correct say so this would
       | be fine. But:
       | 
       | I didn't really follow Mr.Bourdain at all, but given the clarity
       | from other people who did, and believe he would have hated this;
       | then it's not the act of making a voice clone that's unethical
       | it's doing it outside of the wishes, or what would be the
       | perceived wishes of that person.
       | 
       | In other words this is unethical because had they gone to ask
       | permission from the estate/whoever could make that call now that
       | Mr.Bourdain is no longer with us they would have likely gotten a
       | no.
       | 
       | It makes it particularly egregious that if these people were so
       | interested in making this clone of his voice that they likely
       | would have followed him closely enough to know he wouldn't have
       | agreed to this if he were alive.
       | 
       | I guess you can boil my position down to without permission,
       | explicit or implied, it's unethical and not only that, legally
       | I'd put it under impersonation.
        
       | robotomir wrote:
       | After electronic distribution and Amazon's ability to redact the
       | books on your Kindle, this is the next important thing to notice.
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | I'm sure Kenny G. will have some way of making bank on this
       | technology.
       | 
       | https://www.jazzguitar.com/features/kennyg.html
        
       | AlbertCory wrote:
       | I think Neville went by a common motto: "All publicity is good
       | publicity."
       | 
       | Because he didn't need to do it. Using a voice actor would have
       | been completely standard and they would get a credit at the end,
       | which I'm sure they'd appreciate.
       | 
       | And Bourdain definitely would _not_ have liked it.
        
       | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
       | I actually think getting deep fake stuff to the public is the way
       | to go. Basically anyone can create a deep fake. It is far better
       | to get the public used to the idea of deep fakes so they can
       | develop some immunity to it.
        
         | inlikealamb wrote:
         | We've had Photoshop for 3 decades and airbrushing for even
         | longer and it's had far-reaching impacts across society... no
         | one is really immune to it because it isn't obvious and it has
         | arguably poisoned realistic ideals around body image.
         | 
         | IMO we _need_ to mandate disclosures around deepfakes. It 's
         | impossible on a peer-to-peer level, but commercially it should
         | be clearly disclosed.
        
           | autoexec wrote:
           | We don't get immunity to photoshop in the "I can tell from
           | some of the pixels" sense, but we gain immunity in the sense
           | that we no longer accept every image as representing absolute
           | truth. Plenty of people today still think that video
           | manipulation more sophisticated than an instagram filter
           | takes a Hollywood budget or a lot of expertise.
           | 
           | Once people get more experience seeing and creating deepfakes
           | on their own they'll be less trusting of random videos they
           | see in the future
        
             | jackpirate wrote:
             | _we gain immunity in the sense that we no longer accept
             | every image as representing absolute truth_
             | 
             | GPs whole point about body image is that, as a society, we
             | don't have that immunity. Basically no one has a healthy
             | ideal of what a good body image is because we never even
             | get to see them.
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | The fact that media can so effectively influence our view
               | of an ideal body has little to do with our awareness
               | about photo manipulation. We know full well photos are
               | touched up and fake. In fact we're at the point now where
               | millions of people are so aware of it that they are
               | routinely editing their own photos to match whatever the
               | ideal being pushed at us in the moment is. Maybe that's
               | "instagram face" or giant asses, hell I remember when it
               | was heroin chic. The point is that we all know it's fake.
               | It just doesn't matter because media tells us what to
               | like/want regardless.
        
             | KONAir wrote:
             | Are there any studies on "I can tell from some of the
             | pixels"? Over the years I keep coming across both people
             | (and myself) on internets being correct on 'shopped photos
             | while masses belivied in. Is this just down to familiarity
             | with software and a health bit of skepticism?
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | I think it's the healthy skepticism that's more important
               | than being able to detect some minute detail in an edit.
               | For a while photos were considered strong proof, not so
               | much today.
               | 
               | There has been research on detecting photo manipulation
               | and there's plenty of things people can watch out for if
               | they're trying to "prove" an image was altered, but a lot
               | of edits I see are so bad/obvious that the people making
               | them aren't really trying to "fool" anyone with them.
               | They just think it makes the photo look better. They'll
               | do things like jack up color saturation to
               | impossible/unnatural levels, or remove every pore from
               | their skin, etc.
        
             | inlikealamb wrote:
             | >we no longer accept every image as representing absolute
             | truth
             | 
             | That's not true for many people (I'd go as far to say
             | most), and we're so inundated with it that unedited media
             | is the _minority_. Ad campaigns get PR for being
             | "unedited" and even then they're heavily art directed
             | (casting, lighting, styling, etc) to compensate.
             | 
             | The effects are so widespread that they're subliminal, even
             | if you're conscious of the scope that they occur.
             | Billboards, tv, movies, newspaper, magazines, products on
             | shelves, menus at restaurants, wedding photos, family
             | christmas postcards... it's inescapable.
             | 
             | Even if you're some paragon of mindfulness and truth in
             | image editing and can somehow isolate yourself from its
             | influence, you're still subject to it because of how it
             | impacts the way everyone else behaves and sees the world.
             | 
             | We should learn from these mistakes.
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | photo manipulation is pervasive, but I don't take that as
               | evidence that it is actually being believed as truth. I'm
               | not really sure what the subliminal effects are. If you
               | see an ad for a fast food burger on TV it might
               | successfully make you hungry, and make you want to go to
               | that restaurant, but nobody really expects the food they
               | get will look anything like the food in the ad did.
        
               | inlikealamb wrote:
               | > but nobody really expects the food they get will look
               | anything like the food in the ad did
               | 
               | Have you ever worked at a restaurant? It's not as unusual
               | as you think. A lot of us on HN are in bubbles of savvy
               | people because of our tech-related professions, and most
               | people are NOT savvy. Many people never consciously think
               | about the images they're subjected to.
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | Wouldn't it be a problem for the restaurant if people
               | were contently sending food back or being disappointed by
               | the product because it didn't look like the ad? I mean,
               | the difference is striking! (see
               | https://i.imgur.com/e9EaVbu.jpeg). If I genuinely
               | expected the first burger in that image and got served
               | the second one I'd demand my money back and maybe never
               | step foot in that restaurant again! Wouldn't most people?
               | It seems more likely to me that most people accept that
               | the first burger is a fantasy.
        
               | inlikealamb wrote:
               | I worked restaurants through college and I've probably
               | had food thrown at me over a dozen times because it
               | didn't look like the menu!
               | 
               | It's not the norm, but it's not completely unusual. I've
               | had many more people complain about the disparity in less
               | severe terms. It's a very weird world out there, and if
               | I've learned anything it's that I'm incredibly lucky to
               | have any amount of self-awareness because a lot of people
               | are running around out there on pure id... unaware of
               | just about anything. If you're at all skeptical about
               | anything you're ahead of the curve.
        
         | duxup wrote:
         | I'm not sure that when you go down that rabbit hole folks will
         | believe much at all...
         | 
         | I don't want to go down the rabbit hole here but everyone hears
         | about 'fake news', they know what it is, they just label things
         | they don't like 'fake news'. I'm not sure that's helping.
         | 
         | Either way we are going to find out.
        
           | nemo44x wrote:
           | It will get really fun when one side has the "experts" on
           | their side and can have them vouch for the authenticity of
           | something.
        
             | nsxwolf wrote:
             | We are there already with "fact checks". When someone sees
             | a "fact check" pop up on something they post on Facebook,
             | they just say "See? I knew I was right"
        
         | tejtm wrote:
         | I expect it will go as well as our collective immunity to
         | advertising and other propaganda.
        
       | xwdv wrote:
       | Personally I think this is interesting, ethics be damned. It is
       | obvious the direction we are going with these kind of
       | technologies. We will be able to create entirely new content
       | using the personalities of deceased people out of whole cloth.
       | 
       | Some day we may be reduced to nothing more than a pile of ashes
       | and a USB stick with our personality reincarnated into it. That's
       | far better than simply being a pile of ashes, and may be the
       | closest we get to some kind of immortality, a way to keep our ego
       | wandering the digital world long after we've died and gone to
       | wherever you choose to believe.
       | 
       | Combined with advanced AR technology, all it may take is putting
       | on some glasses to see the ghosts of your ancestors wandering the
       | real world and interacting with it. Well, maybe not _our_
       | ancestors. _We_ will be the ancestors, and our descendants will
       | be the ones watching us, tending to our digital souls.
        
       | GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
       | If they had used a voice actor to recite the Bourdain letter ---
       | would that be the same sacrilege as using an AI?
        
         | grenoire wrote:
         | Sacrilegious bit is that it's not disclosed. It's made to be
         | deceptive.
        
         | jowsie wrote:
         | I think it would feel less weird/unsettling, but I'd still want
         | a disclaimer at least, like any other recreation/reenactment.
        
       | code_duck wrote:
       | My brother and I had a running joke that Tom Araya from Slayer
       | died in the mid 90s, based on his ashen appearance in the Divine
       | Intervention sleeve. Our "theory" was all of his vocals after
       | then were bits of previous recordings reassembled into new songs.
       | It sounded technically possible with manual editing back then,
       | but it has already gone so far as to automatable.
       | 
       | In this case, for a documentary, I see how that's a defensible
       | used case. They could hire an actor to read the email, imitating
       | Bourdain's voice as closely as possible, to the same effect.
       | Other uses certainly could be problematic. Discussing them and
       | working out legal and cultural rules is very relevant right now.
       | We've already had posthumous celebrity event appearances over the
       | past couple of years. Famous actors could be in movies with
       | needing to be involved very much - mainly an IP license. I have
       | no doubt record companies would love to create new music with all
       | the artists of the 60s-80s, dead or alive.
        
       | jjcm wrote:
       | I don't see this as any different than getting an actor to play
       | the part. This happens all of the time in docos for a more
       | immersive experience. JFK voice comes to mind quite a bit as an
       | example. Is it unethical to get an actor to play his voice?
        
         | mywittyname wrote:
         | The major difference I see is that the viewer is aware that
         | they are watching an actor. Or at least, they should be aware.
         | It has always been standard practice to note when something
         | being shown is a reenactment of an event, and not the actual
         | one.
         | 
         | Even if they used a voice actor to mimic Bourdain, they should
         | have informed the audience that an actor was reading the
         | script.
        
           | nemo44x wrote:
           | > It has always been standard practice to note when something
           | being shown is a reenactment of an event, and not the actual
           | one.
           | 
           | Aren't the lines being read by robo-Bourdain actual things he
           | write and/or said?
           | 
           | I feel like there's a difference there even if it is a bit
           | weird to not credit robo-Bourdain in those instances.
        
             | thebean11 wrote:
             | Voice has a lot more information than text. With a
             | deepfake, all the information (despite his general sound
             | and rhythm) is completely made up.
        
       | nsomaru wrote:
       | A deepfake audio + video with mask of the mayor of ethekwini was
       | used to encourage people to continue looting during recent riots
       | in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
       | 
       | It's scary.
        
         | jsonne wrote:
         | Do you have a source? That's wild if true.
        
         | ipsum2 wrote:
         | Googling "Deep fake ethekwini" brings up... this comment.
        
           | borski wrote:
           | To be fair, that doesn't make it untrue. It just means a
           | source is required - the parent _may_ be a primary source,
           | heh, but that has to be established.
           | 
           | (I agree with you, I just have been corrected in the past
           | with actual on-ground knowledge that hadn't been reported yet
           | - don't know if that's the case here :))
        
           | CamperBob2 wrote:
           | Looks like we have the first recorded instance of a metafake
           | here.
        
           | georgeglue1 wrote:
           | This is all I could find...
           | https://www.facebook.com/eThekwiniM/posts/4359537737429640
           | 
           | I don't know what the referenced video is, or if it is a
           | deepfake though.
        
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