In a move that totally isn’t filled with terrifying possibilities, an artificial intelligence company has released a podcast interview between Joe Rogan and the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. For the record, neither Rogan or Jobs (obviously) actually participated in the interview. Instead, their voices were “generated from a text-to-voice software” that pulled from previous recordings to mimic Rogan and Jobs’ speaking patterns. Sort of like the Respeecher technology that now does James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader voice, but for podcasts.
The project is spearheaded by Podcast.ai, which reportedly wants to create a platform that will “allow subscribers to listen to voices from the past brought back to life.” Via Mediaite:
In the conversation, Rogan and Jobs speak at length about religion, spirituality, and technology.
“Do you still believe some of the things that you believe then? Are you semi-religious or something? Are you a Buddhist?” Rogan asked.
“I get asked that a lot. I think it’s impossible to have somebody show you who they are and what they believe in one interview or even over a period of time,” Jobs responded.
Here’s the thing: Rogan did not participate in the AI podcast, and he’s yet to comment on it being released. It’s hard to tell how he’ll react to a podcast floating around where he seemingly conducts an interview with a dead guy. Rogan could be on board with the technology, or he could realize how easily something like this could be weaponized.
The podcast host holds considerable sway over his conspiratorially-minded audience, who tends to hang on his every word. With AI technology in the mix, who’s to say they won’t question whether they’re actually listening to Rogan or a computer mimicking him? Even more concerning, people could easily be duped by the latter without even realizing it. All great stuff to think about it. Just super neat.
You can listen to “Joe Rogan” interview “Steve Jobs” below:
(Via Mediaite)