A micro perspective: The effects of AI to my community in Malaysia
While on a school run recently, an AI generated voiceover for a social message came on the radio. At this point, it is still possible to tell the difference between an AI voiceover versus an actual speaking person. The uncanny valley- the gap that you can tell the difference between an AI generated sound versus an actual voice generated by an actual human mouth, up to at least this year, 2023, is still discernible.
For one thing, the voiceover sounded too American to be a Malaysian voiceover artist. There is also a sort of difference, albeit very minutiae, in the intonation of the voiceover’s voice versus a typical person’s voice. Also, of course, it is an impossibility for Taylor Swift, a major superstar, to drop a voice message on this little radio station in Malaysia.
This was the impetus for an interesting conversation with my daughters, ages 11 and 15, about AI and looking forward to the future. We were arguing about the impossibility of tech in 2023 versus in 1993 when I was 11. It is just inconceivable in 1993 to have the total sum of knowledge of the whole world in a few taps of a mobile phone. It is also an impossibility for me to be able to video call or have a meeting spread over multiple continents in an instant. Thirty years on from 1993, this is my every day today.
