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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.
[...] "It seems that Adobe's programmers were swept along with the excitement of creating something as innovative as a voice manipulator, and ignored the ethical dilemmas brought up by its potential misuse," he told the BBC. "Inadvertently, in its quest to create software to manipulate digital media, Adobe has [already] drastically changed the way we engage with evidential material such as photographs.
"This makes it hard for lawyers, journalists, and other professionals who use digital media as evidence.
"In the same way that Adobe's Photoshop has faced legal backlash after the continued misuse of the application by advertisers, Voco, if released commercially, will follow its predecessor with similar consequences."
The risks extend beyond people being fooled into thinking others said something they did not. Banks and other businesses have started using voiceprint checks to verify customers are who they say they are when they phone in. One cybersecurity researcher said the companies involved had long anticipated something like Adobe's invention.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @09:43PM
"Then I suggest the record tapes have been deliberately changed. A computer expert can change record tapes, duplicate voices, say anything, say nothing."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday November 24 2016, @10:59PM
Reminds me of a joke:
A young man is romantically hopeless because he has a ridiculously wimpy-sounding high-pitched voice. One day, he encounters a genie, who offers to grant the young man any wish. The young man tells the genie, "I want to have a smooth deep voice so I can attract a date," and the genie hands the young man a donkey dick and explains, "Whenever you are sounding wimpy, just suck on this magical donkey dick and your voice will be smooth and deep."
Well, the young man arranged a date with a lady he had never met and before that date he sucked on his magical donkey dick...and immediately afterward he said, "WHOA, THAT WAS GOOD!" Later, his date was a success, and the young man was to go on a second date with the lady. Before the second date he looked around but could not find his magical donkey dick...and in a panic, asked his mom, "Mom, have you seen my magical donkey dick? Where is it?
"I DON'T KNOW," she replied.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Friday November 25 2016, @12:42AM
That's actually a true story. I know the guy it happened to. Friend of a friend.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 25 2016, @01:31AM
The dude was dating his own mom?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:41PM
That genie is a fraudster: any donkey dick WILL WORK JUST AS WELL
Account abandoned.