Voicemod has created 20 “AI Humans”, digital personas that allow gamers to speak in voices other than their own.
voice mod
A Spanish artificial intelligence company has unveiled a number of “AI humans” that will allow people to change their voice in video games in real time.
Valencia-based Voicemod released 20 human-like characters on Wednesday, ranging from women in their 20s to older men. Voices are trained from professional human voice actors.
In a demonstration of the technology on the phone with CNBC, Voicemod CEO Jamie Bosch said he would speak regularly and have several different voices, ranging from a high-pitched female voice to a baritone male voice. I showed myself to change.
Gamers can download the app to their Apple Mac or Windows PC, embed Voicemod’s technology as a “virtual microphone” that sits in between your microphone application, and initiate conversations through alternate personas.
Drawing talent from leading technical universities in Valencia and Barcelona, Voicemod has been working on text-to-speech and interactive audio features since 2014, with many of its employees specializing in music technology and audio.
Used by over 40 million people, Voicemod’s technology allows users within the social app Discord to speak to each other in voices other than their own while playing games.
“We have a great creative community that uses this mostly for fun, to have fun with friends, and to feel a sense of belonging,” Bosch said in an interview with CNBC.
“One of the biggest use cases that I like the most is people who are shy. Some people will.”
This is a milestone in the world of conversational AI. Many of today’s AI algorithms allow people to send texts and receive AI-generated ones, but doing this reliably in real time is a much more difficult feat.
This technology requires a large amount of computing power. And creating and patenting the unique algorithmic models behind it requires significant investment and manpower.
To this end, Voicemod has raised $23 million in cash from multiple venture capitalists including Leadwind and Bitkraft Ventures.
Bosch is also well aware of the risks that this technology could be exploited. For example, voice-altering technology could be used to impersonate powerful politicians or to defraud people.
“This is what I think about every day, and what I think about every day internally when it comes to creating voice,” he said.
The company is nearing completion of a “watermarking” solution that can identify whether audio was produced using an alteration system. The company is also in talks with other companies to standardize such systems and ensure the safe release of voice-modifying technology.
“One is that there will be clear legislation,” Bosch said. “I know Europe is working on it. The reality is that companies are usually ahead of the law.”
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