During my ~30 years in broadcasting I had numerous occasions to recruit and hire reporters. Because our newsrooms were small (3 or 4 people), reporters also anchored our reports. Which meant they had to be good journalists AND have good on-air delivery. A tough compromise at times.
I wonder if technology like 11ElevenLabs’ speech synthesis will (is) changing this. The audio below is a CNN story “read” by one of their voices. (see previous post for more on this technology)
I recently stumbled upon a Substack article by Ethan Mollick, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, titled “A quick and sobering guide to cloning yourself.”
“With just a photograph and 60 seconds of audio, you can now create a deepfake of yourself in just a matter of minutes by combining a few cheap AI tools. I’ve tried it myself, and the results are mind-blowing, even if they’re not completely convincing. Just a few months ago, this was impossible. Now, it’s a reality.”
As a former radio guy I was more interested in the audio portion of Professor Mollick’s experiment.
“Clone a voice from a clean sample recording. Samples should contain 1 speaker and be over a 1 minute long and not contain background noise. Currently works best on US-English accent.”
I created an account at 11ElevenLabs, picked a voice and uploaded some text from my blog bio.
For $5 a month (first month free) you can synthesize your own voice. I uploaded a recording of me reading that same bio.
Finally, I pasted in some text from one of my blog posts and my voice was “cloned.”
Just to be clear, the first audio is one of their “voices.” The the second audio is a recording of my voice. The real me, if you will. And the third audio is the synthesized Steve voice. I’m not sure someone could tell the difference. I sort of prefer the synthesized reading over my own. In two years (?), this technology will be so good it will be nearly impossible to tell real from cloned.
So many questions. How long does it take to produce one of these? How many voice actors are used? How many of those do more than one voice? Are there out-takes? (God, but I’d love to see those). Do they video the production process? If more than one writer, do they have writer’s meetings?
I took a beer-fueled swing at one of these back in 2006 (think “Really Bad Lib Reading”). A few years later I had a go at a MST3K homage.
I confess I haven’t been paying much attention to the ChatGPT phenomenon but the video below is a pretty good explanation.
In a follow-up video (Google Panics Over ChatGPT), we’re told Microsoft CEO Satay Nadella is reported to have said “…its impact will be at the magnitude of the personal computer, the internet, mobile devices and the cloud.” That’s a big impact. Or hyperbole. Or both.
While waiting for the new steering box I’ve been amusing myself with what I think of as de-junking the Jeep. Removed rusty old seat belts; pulled up nasty carpet; ditched the home-made tool box (there’s a perfectly good one under the passenger seat). Also a little spray paint touch-up. Still plan to yank the CB radio and the spotlights on the rollbar.
As I finished up Paul suggested to take the jeep for a little drive (steering with vice grips, of course). I was surprised by just how much land Paul, his brother and father have. (I believe he said 120 acres but I might be wrong about that.) Best part? Winding trails just wide enough for the Jeep (and other offroad vehicles, I assume).
Paul had no trouble steering with the vice grips and the Jeep did the offroad bits beautifully. But we mostly just moseyed along in first gear. This is going to be a fun ride.
UPDATE 2/6/23: The floor of the Jeep –front and back– was covered with a nasty black carpet. I much prefer the battered (?) metal. When I get the Jeep home I’ll wash it out good and give the tub a coat of paint.
I played with the canvas top a little and decided to just go with the top over the seats. Just not a fan of those plastic windows. I’ll wear my insulated coveralls when I need to drive in cold weather. (Man,I have got to adios those lights.)
Paul was able to remove the broken steering column and see what he needed to get the Jeep drivable. Parts on order. Getting closer.
Steve Hoefer, an online acquaintance, shares his family’s Jeep story:
Ours is a 1946 Willy’s CJ-2A. Originally I believe it was Normandy Blue with yellow rims. I don’t think Dad bought it new, he’d have been a bit young in ’46, but he bought it for farming.
They stopped driving it before I was born, though apparently all of my siblings bounced out of it at some point or other. I’d always known it as a busted thing parked in an outbuilding, home to generations of raccoons. Around 1990 my dad decided to drag it out so he and a buddy could fix it up. He wasn’t interested in making it look new, I don’t even know how we’d have addressed the rust. It took quite a few parts and rebuilding the engine. When it works it sounds just like on MASH and handles like an unruly toddler. I’ve never had it above 30 mph because I don’t think I’d keep it on the road or me in the seat. Both dad and his buddy have passed now and none of the rest of us know engines enough to keep it in good repair. We do have the full service manual. If someone was motivated enough they could get it back into shape without too much trouble.
At one point my nephews made a potato cannon and we mounted it on top and pretended we were in Rat Patrol. (We put the windshield frame on, but never felt safe putting the glass in. Also we never found the front bumper so I bolted a piece of 4×4 to the front.)
I hate camo and all that phrase has come to connote. When I saw the Jeep for the first time I thought, cool Jeep. My second thought was, that camo is fugly! Paul made the Jeep look much better with a few cans of spray paint. I’m going to try to do the same for the canvas top.
Thought it would be a chore to get the top off but Paul and I did it in about five minutes. Turns out the previous owner had the top custom-made by some upholstery wizard. When it was off Paul said he thought the Jeep looked happier.
I spread the pieces out on the floor of the big room in the Annex and masked the plastic “windows” in preparation for painting tomorrow. Curious if this will work at all and how many cans it might take. If it comes out okay, I’ll probably put it back on and drive the Jeep some this winter.
I also learned today the previous owner had a cover made for the Jeep. I was expecting a big old bag that covered the entire vehicle but this item looks custom, too.
Difficult to tell from this photo but it appears this just covers the interior with those two pouch-looking things for the seat backs. I don’t expect to worry much about the Jeep getting wet but we’ll see how easy this is to get on and off.
I’ve cobbled together a “carport” of sorts by covering the top of the Land Rover rack with a heavy duty tarp in hopes of keeping the worst of the weather off. (:54 video)
Update February 2, 2023: The spray job on the canvas top came out better than expected. Close enough to the color of the Jeep body.
I’m now in my fifth winter with the Land Rover. And every winter I spend some time bitching and whining about the little truck’s heater. Less since the F-150 joined the fleet because it has a great heater and has become my winter vehicle of choice on really cold days. Yesterday I noticed two white-ish tabs on either side of the Rover’s heating unit near the floorboard.
When I gave it a tug a small door opened on the side of the heater. A vent. Aimed at the driver’s feet. Another one of the passenger side. Fuck. Me. Warm air (not hot, mind you) came flowing out. Since I never have a passenger, I’ll leave that one closed so all of the toasty air comes my way.
My understanding of how the heater works is water gets warmed by the engine after it’s been running for a bit. And that water (somehow) heats the air that gets blown into the passenger compartment. To make this happen there’s a small brass valve that must be opened in the winter and closed in the summer.
