Vergecast just finished a series on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it is having a significant impact on the way content is being created for voice, video, writing, and taste.

In terms of voice, AI is being used to create clones of peoples voices. For instance, celebrities often have to record commercials for radio stations across the country. AI could be used to create these custom messages rather than the celebrity recording each message. Another example is creating content with peoples voice in other languages. Think about how far reaching a podcast or movie could be if the original actor / speaker could be heard in the other language using AI.

There are also ways bad actors could abuse this technology. Imagine a bad actor using your posts on social media to generate an AI voice for you and targeting people you know or institutions you use. Some companies have said their software will use a digital watermark that will indicate it is a voice AI. Still, this will be challenging to regulate as the technology moves faster than legislation.

In the realm of video, AI is being used to streamline the creation of video content. They discussed how AI can be used to de-age an actor which could be used to prolong an actor / actresses career.

In terms of voice, AI can be used to generate text like blog posts and short form writing. It was interesting how they talked about the evolution of AI in text. AI has been used to autocomplete text messages before the smartphone era when numerical keypads were used. Now AI can be used to draft entire essays.

The last episode in the series focued on how AI is being used to design smells and tastes. I didn’t have any takeaways from this episode but it was interesting to hear how the science is developing.