VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

GunslingerWriting · Contributor II Joined: 23 Feb 2010 Posts: 61

...and just the very, very, very beginning of inevitable undetectability.

https://speechelo.com/g-offer/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwzdOlBhCNARIsAPMwjbxV9SbHbRM-EypsZAwWEHxtGL64M-RkZoHy66CdekVXcE5MHkQ8asEaAibxEALw_wcB

Bob Bergen · CM Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 939

This isn't the tip of the iceberg. It's a snow flurry. I've witnessed the tip of the iceberg. Actually, I've witnessed the iceberg hit the Titanic. The Titanic being the vo actor. Over the past year I've been a part AI focus groups within the tv and film industry. The software and examples people keep posting online are like 1929 talkies compared to IMAX, with IMAX being AI. This stuff is really good right now, and the examples we keep seeing are purposely inferior to what they really have and use.

A few weeks ago I was at an AI industry conference where studio execs and their IT shared how they perfected AI with the help of P2P vo sites that popped up during the actors commercial strike in 2000. As well as tons of non-union vo recordings, both auditions and jobs that weren't from P2P, and were sold to AI creators by the buyers. The advancement of audio AI was supplied by the non-union vo industry. And the reason they didn't use union content for this is because even without specific AI protections in our union contracts, the buyers feared lawsuits. And they knew the non-union world didn't have a legal leg to stand on.

Mike Paul · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 9:30 pm Post subject:

This is heartbreaking and it seems there is no way to stop it since the non-union world is vast and there's no way to inform every VO out there on the consequences. Even if you could, some wouldn't care and they'd take the money anyway.

GunslingerWriting · Contributor II Joined: 23 Feb 2010 Posts: 61

Bob Bergen · CM Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 939

/quote]Given that even leading-edge AI professionals can't predict exactly the course of their creations, no conclusive evaluations are possible but one answer seems clear: the golden days are over and a LOT of VO people are going to be out of work or paid a lot less...for reasons of both technological advance and the ease of piracy within that advancement.[/quote]

I don't think you realize how profound your statement is. If you replace AI with the words non-union, this would be the exact same warning from over 20 plus years ago when the last tech disruption, the internet, eroded the union vo industry,

And from cable to home video, new media to streaming, management used the same justifications as "professionals can't predict exactly the course of their creations" when they refused to compensate/profit share relative to network broadcasting. This is all just history repeating itself. But when we win this strike, and I know we will, I absolutely see more vo actors coming back to the union as that will be the only possibility of AI protections. I also predict it will bring more work to the union, as those who eroded the union vo industry bring with them their buyers. And, I also predict it won't be a huge percentage who come back. But just like the erosion was tiny at first, then snowballed, the reverse will most likely follow suit.

todd ellis · Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 7:29 pm Post subject:

A ratchet only turns one way. Personally, I think we could do with a slow down. According to FX Research, there were 599 adult scripted original series across broadcast, cable and streaming services in 2022, WTH??? Three words --- The Rockford Files - I've got all 6 seasons on VHS! Seriously, the bowl only holds so much water. I predict a very painful year or two of big rocks dropped in the bowl, sloshing water over the edges, time and time again. Once the waves settle and surface tension once again reigns, the water that remains in the bowl (probably not me, and hopefully not the person responsible for The Real Housewives) will keep on keepin' on. The water sloshed onto the table will find something else to do. Solar sales, maybe ... or worse ... community theater.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

Mike Paul · Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 10:25 pm Post subject:

Fran interviewed on PBS NewsHour https://youtu.be/WeSiS_Ya3aM?t=2073

The latest strike offer from studios included a part that says a background worker gets paid for 1 day of work, his body gets scanned, and they get to use that body scan in... perpetuity. "What is going to happen to that background person? He's out of work. He's been replaced by AI. That is unacceptable. That is a deal breaker."
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Mike Paul
https://speakingofmike.com

GunslingerWriting · Contributor II Joined: 23 Feb 2010 Posts: 61

The strike is much, much more than a strike and with much broader implications than its celebrity spokespeople could have imagined not so long ago before the prominent AI intrusion into the conversation.

The strike is the most efficient way to right unconscionable industry wrongs and deal with the potentially cataclysmic impact of AI.

GunslingerWriting · Contributor II Joined: 23 Feb 2010 Posts: 61

todd ellis · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 6:35 am Post subject:

I reject AI and all it's works
I renounce the deceit and corruption of evil
I am FOR the union's goals in this strike.
A market correction is coming.
Lots of people are going to be looking for another way to put food on the table.

Grandpa used to say, "There are three kinds of people, those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that wonder what the hell happened."

I have been working with my agents and clients for months putting AI protections in place for myself and other non-union VO peasants. We have been having a great deal of success. The clients, at least mine, are at least as unsure about AI VO as anyone. Communication is key. Don't wait for someone else to attempt to solve the problem for you. Take proactive steps on your own. Talk to your clients, talk to your agents and drop all this P2P nonsense in all forms.

ratch·et
1. a device consisting of a bar or wheel with a set of angled teeth in which a cog or tooth engages, allowing motion in one direction only.

verb
2. cause something to rise or fall as a step in a steady and irreversible process.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

Philip Banks · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 7:28 am Post subject:

A business like exchange.

"Dear Philip, we're stealing your work to use where ever we like BECAUSE you didn't tell us not to."

"Dear Client, no you're not so sorry about that."

"Dear Philip, we will never speak of this again, ok?"

"Dear Client, k, love ya Hun xx"

"Dear Philip, U2 Babe xxx"

George · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 11:32 am Post subject:

For all the work NAVA has been doing to try and leverage P2P sites to sign onto their pledge not to use auditions as a training and sales item for AI engines going forward and for the perceived success that brings, what the P2P sites failed to include in that "monumental announcement" is that - as Bob stated above - they've already sold years worth of those auditions prior to signing on. That is already done.

For all the folks who marveled at how great James Earl Jones as an AI in Obi Wan sounded and claimed that only the big studios can afford AI that good, they are dead wrong. You can go to a web page and speak a few sentences and get something "decently good". And when you look at the terms of service that nobody reads, each of those sites has language saying that they own and can resell every recording.

The curious general population is feeding the engines for free.

The end.

todd ellis · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 12:14 pm Post subject:

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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

GunslingerWriting · Contributor II Joined: 23 Feb 2010 Posts: 61

todd ellis · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 1:33 pm Post subject:

I believe voiceover, acting, writing, (entertainment in general) will be the very least of our worries.

I'll just stick with "market correction" and leave it at that.

ps - and I'm going all VO-BB-Old-School here ... quoting whole posts in the same thread is unnecessary. There was a time a fella would get a yellow card for that.
_________________
"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?