Do you know how advanced artificial intelligence is these days? AI is so unbelievable, there are now tools you can use to create audio that sounds just like another person speaking in real life. You can essentially steal somebody’s identity with it.
So on today’s show, I thought I’d have some fun and steal my Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh’s “Sweet Baby Gang” using AI technology. The experiment also raises some potentially very serious questions for our culture, law, and media.
So, a remarkable company called Eleven Labs has created an AI audio generator. A brief recap of how this works: you essentially type into your computer the phrase you want somebody to say via the generator. This technology takes a sampling of their voice and then uses it to create sound bites that sound exactly like the person you are imitating. The generator can read aloud entire audiobooks, speeches, and more.
If you watch my show today, you can hear the spooky accuracy of how much this prompt sounds like my “non-friend” and “arch-nemesis” Matt Walsh:
Today on the Matt Walsh Show. I’ll be telling you why I’m formally stepping down as the leader of the sweet baby gang. I’ve searched long and hard for a successor and have finally found one. She is the host of my favorite podcast ever and has the best taste in bottled water. First, I have to admit that I was wrong. Dasani is absolute trash. Secondly, I am announcing that I am formally handing control of the sweet baby gang to my dear friend Candace Owens.
Here’s the video, listen for yourself:
It is incredible, but also truly alarming.
It reminds me of numerous conspiracies about the U.S. government. Some people estimate the CIA has had this sort of technology for decades. Like with other rumors about technology, before the government allows the general public to have it, they will use it to stage their advantage first.
Documentaries on different historical events claim the CIA or FBI has used this sort of technology to fake phone calls from loved ones to stage certain events. It’s never been proven, but sounds like just the sort of thing our own government might do.
If that hasn’t happened before, the new technology available to the public today certainly can be used to do it now.
What else can AI potentially be used for?
Well, harrowingly, imagine it being used in court. Imagine, God forbid, that you’re trying to get custody of your child. To block that from happening, your spouse uses an AI generator to make a recording of horrendous things — things you never said.
How’s the court going to know that it’s a fake? This AI will only get better with time. What ghastly amount of money will the court system have to spend to create an entire forensic analysis team to determine the veracity of recordings?
Or think about commentators such as myself. Individuals like me could lose their entire platform in one day. Somebody could use an AI generator to create a voice memo that sounds as if I am saying I hate my fans and that I am secretly pro-choice. That would obviously go viral even before I have a chance to respond. Even if I do respond, it would be my word against what sounds like my own.
How scary is that?
In the future, how are we going to be able to determine what is fact and what is fiction?