Synthesize speech in anyone’s voice Or Software for the Ministry of Truth

Now people with limited skills can propagate agendas and support it with "Proof". Don’t trust me, hear for yourself what “X” said. Listen for yourself. We are entering a new age you can see computer generated forms of actual people doing thing they never actually did and hear them say things they never said in reality.  This is great if one is pushing corporate slander or political agendas. How many celebrities or sports stars will now "support" products or groups? This is not new technology, but it is now being pushed down to an affordable level and is much easier to use.  Does it fool Biometric cyber security software, maybe not yet, but... It is time to start thinking about how to deal with the negative impacts of this technology. See the two articles below

Adobe’s upcoming audio tool lets you synthesize speech in anyone’s voice

https://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/11/04/adobes-upcoming-audio-tool-lets-you-synthesize-speech-in-anyones-voice/#.tnw_TjlnuifU

Adobe Voco 'Photoshop-for-voice' causes concern

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37899902

Adobe’s upcoming audio tool lets you synthesize speech in anyone’s voice by ABHIMANYU GHOSHAL 

Get ready for a whole new universe of scams and conspiracy theories. At its annual MAX event, Adobe showed off a tool it’s working on that’s basically Photoshop for audio, in that it can generate authentic-sounding speech in anyone’s voice based on a small sample.

You read that right: Feed Project VoCo about 20 minutes of audio featuring someone’s voice, and the software will then let you edit that speech to deliver natural results. You can cut and paste words, and even add words that weren’t even part of the original sample file.

Hear it in action in this video clip from the event, which features comedian Jordan Peele freaking out exactly the same way I did when I saw this:

The Verge noted that Project VoCo is currently in the works and is being built by members of Adobe Research and folks from Princeton University. The company explained the software’s functionality in a statement:

When recording voiceovers, dialog, and narration, people would often like to change or insert a word or a few words due to either a mistake they made or simply because they would like to change part of the narrative. We have developed a technology called Project VoCo in which you can simply type in the word or words that you would like to change or insert into the voiceover. The algorithm does the rest and makes it sound like the original speaker said those words.

Is it too late to rename it to Project Loco?

Expect to hear a lot of claims of the use of doctored audio from politicians and sleazebags in the coming years. Thanks, Adobe.

Adobe Voco 'Photoshop-for-voice' causes concern, BBC article

A new application that promises to be the "Photoshop of speech" is raising ethical and security concerns.

Adobe unveiled Project Voco last week. The software makes it possible to take an audio recording and rapidly alter it to include words and phrases the original speaker never uttered, in what sounds like their voice.

One expert warned that the tech could further undermine trust in journalism.

Another said it could pose a security threat.

However, the US software firm says it is taking action to address such risks.

Voice manipulation

At a live demo in San Diego on Thursday, Adobe took a digitised recording of a man saying "and I kissed my dogs and my wife" and changed it to say "and I kissed Jordan three times".

The edit took seconds and simply involved the operator overtyping a transcript of the speech and then pressing a button to create the synthesised voice track.