NotebookLM, a relatively new Google tool now offers an audio summary feature where AI generated personalities and voices host a podcast. I thought I’d give it a try… and its good. Like really good. Scary good. Give it a listen.
The above is a great summary of my main PhD research findings (more here and a longer treatment here), the content is real, its my book. As the creator, I fed the tool what I wanted it to say. But the voices are fake, the banter, humor and mode of communication is syncretic audio. It has syncretized my chosen content with fake audio.
This is an incredible illustration of the power of AI to generate authentic sounding, dare I say real, believable media. It even has banter, humor, inflection and detectable nuance. In our information world that is polluted to begin with, this is a game changer.
I don’t deny the power of AI to help improve efficiency etc. but what if I uploaded a completely bogus document or fed the AI tool falsehoods and dangerous ideologies? These hosts would make it sound completely legit! Welcome to the world of deepfakes.
Imagine fake content generated to sway your opinion impersonating politicians (already happening!). Or AI generated images of things that never happened (yep that is happening too). Or videos with audio and real sounding humans reporting things that have never happened like news correspondents (You guessed it, that too).
Welcome to the amphitheater. Many scenarios like the above are happening and are shaping our reality in social media and the online space. Now take it a step further… could such news, syncretic media and false news ruin a reputation, stir a revolt, change perceptions of a war and push an ideology to justify violence?
Best to beware of the online space, and gear up with PPE. Sort of like putting on gloves and goggles before a project. Verify, be suspicious, think: am I being targeted here? Triple check, don’t share memes (Many have dubious origins), digest only reliable, reputable sources in the green area of the media bias chart, practice digital hygiene.
But you can listen to the above podcast, totally legit ;).
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