We already have almost all of the technology we need to create a digital replica of you: voice, visuals, and even your thinking, worldview and way of expressing yourself can all be mimicked.
Would you want to create a digital replica of someone else? Would you let a digital replica of you be available online?
TRANSCRIPT
Using Generative AI tools. We already have everything that we need to be able to create a digital replica of you. Welcome to the future, my name is Graeme Codrington. This is Throw Forward Thursday. Normally, I try and jump into the future and see what’s going on there, but the future is coming at us way too quickly at the moment for that.
Here’s what I’m talking about. If you take 11 Labs, that’s one example of a tool that allows you to take an audio file, so you record somebody talking, then you upload that file into the 11 Labs system, and it then does audio mapping of your voice. So, this is a little bit more. It’s not really artificial intelligence, but it’s using some of the power of the artificial intelligence tools that are available to create a digital map of your voice. And the more distinctive your voice is, and the more key markers there are in your vocal intonations, the more we can create a digital map of your voice. Then what we can do is we could just get that particular voice profile to read any text document and it would sound quite a lot like me.
Obviously, the more famous a voice is, the more recordings, the more minutes and hours you have of that voice being recorded, the better your digital profile can be. And then the easier it is to create, of course, we can use it to create fake versions of somebody saying something they didn’t actually say. But we can also use it for many other purposes. So, we can get the voice part of things right.
We know that video is coming as well, where we have the ability to create what they call deep fakes, which is to take a video of somebody talking or doing something and then superimpose these other words, put these other words into their mouths and there’s a lot of digital tools like a D-ID, for example, digital ID, or a very interesting tool called Replika, which is deliberately designed to create somebody who is essentially very much like you, who can chat to you.
Replica was, first of all, created. They realised how weird this was, so they moved away from it. But the initial thought around Replika was to be able to take, in particular, a grandparent, a beloved relative or friend, where you could take some of the sampling of their voice, and then you could add an extra layer where you took journals and letters and emails that they had written. You then use those to program a ChatGPT-Style database that then allows the content, the text that is produced to sound very much like a particular person.
We can do this with ChatGPT and ourselves, we can program ChatGPT to look at things that we’ve written and learn that style and then only produce responses in that particular style. So you put all of these things together and we can create a digital replica of human beings.
Would you want to speak to a friend or a relative who has passed away, but speak to them where the responses that you get sound incredibly like them? The words that are used and the language that’s used and even the concepts that are talked about are very much what that person would have said and then can literally be put into their voice. And I think in a few years’ time, we’ll have got the video so perfect that it would feel as if we could have a Zoom call and it could be a live Zoom call with them interacting to what they hear from us and speak back to us.
ChatGPT has just added the new voice feature so that we know that this level of real-time interaction is possible. But imagine you could put a particular person and personality into that, including yourself. Replika, digital versions of ourselves and other people are going to be normal in the very near future, and my word, the implications of that just expand my mind.
So, we’re going to have to come back to that next week, and this is what we’re doing in Season 4. We’re trying to keep the initial video short to just give you one focused insight into the future, “Replika people” this week, and then next week, we’re going to come back and say, well, what would that mean for your business? What would that mean for the world that you live in, both the threats and the opportunities?
So, we’ll come back and have a look at those next week. Thank you for coming to the future with me. The future, it’s yesterday already. I’ll see you next week.
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Graeme Codrington, is an internationally recognized futurist, specializing in the future of work. He helps organizations understand the forces that will shape our lives in the next ten years, and how we can respond in order to confidently stay ahead of change. Chat to us about booking Graeme to help you Re-Imagine and upgrade your thinking to identify the emerging opportunities in your industry.
For the past two decades, Graeme has worked with some of the world’s most recognized brands, travelling to over 80 countries in total, and speaking to around 100,000 people every year. He is the author of 5 best-selling books, and on faculty at 5 top global business schools.