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Recently, I was experimenting with using AI-generated voices for Learning Pathway lessons. Below are two short examples, using two different AI-generated voices:

While it’s clear that the voices are AI-generated, the quality is very good. I was able to put these two videos together very quickly, using my own script, the AI-generated voice, and my own visuals. Much quicker than if I had recorded and edited it myself.

There are some considerations to this approach:

It would need to be clearly stated that the videos are using AI-generated voices
Currently, our guidelines require that the video presenter is properly vetted. In this case, the presenter is a digital construct, so it might require an update to our guidelines.

So my question is, what does the training team think of these videos? Do we feel that if we used AI-generated voices it would enhance or diminish our lesson content. What are the pros and cons to this?

Ronny Shani 8:17 am on May 7, 2024

Perhaps there’s a middle ground: cloning your own voice. Saw [this tool](https://github.com/myshell-ai/OpenVoice) mentioned in a couple of places. I didn’t dig into the specifics but it sounds pretty good.
Jonathan Bossenger 8:41 am on May 7, 2024

So my experiments in this area weren’t as good as the pre-recorded AI voices. However, this could be due to my South African accent, and the fact that most AI voice generators are probably trained on more common US or UK English speakers.

What might work is if there are training team contributors who would be prepared to have their voices cloned, but I’m not sure of the legalities of that…
Ronny Shani 9:52 am on May 7, 2024

.

this could be due to my South African accent, and the fact that most AI voice generators are probably trained on more common US or UK English speakers.

That’s actually a very good reason not to use AI in this case: it perpetuates this particular bias-by-design and makes the world a little duller and less diverse.
Wes Theron 12:37 am on May 9, 2024

Thanks for investigating this, Jonathan. I feel the AI voices will diminish our lesson content. The synthetic and monotone nature of the AI voice makes it sound less authentic and uncomfortable to listen to.

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