The Importance of Automating Audio Content

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We built a chrome extension for medium just for like basically building it for myself. And we put it in production. We started getting some growth there. It wasn't as big as what we hoped for, but we started to get a feeling of like building a B2B product or SaaS business and what people are expecting. So at that time, COVID hit and we have built this on top of this like API is we have built that editor that has taught all the capabilities of these APIs. People can now easily create content using text engines such as IBM's speech-to-text engine. When COVID hit, many customers coming into our own development models because they're okay

The development of ultra-realistic human voices is upon us, and Mahmoud Felfel's company Play.ht is leading the next generation of text-to-voice models. In this episode, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of automating a more human voice, as well as concerns about deep fakes and user safety.

We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Preview of Mahmoud on this episode

(0:55) Sponsor: Omneky.com

(1:45) Nathan clones his voice using Play.ht

(6:11) Why Mahmoud started Play.ht and the problem they tried to solve

(13:08) The job to be done for Play.ht & how they’re thinking about APIs and models

(24:45) Mahmoud breaks down the architecture of Play.ht

(29:30) How the use cases have evolved

(30:00) New markets and opportunities with creators

(37:00) Are we all about to become prompt engineers/directors?

(44:50) Roadmap to other languages beyond English

(48:00) Managing the compute(52:00) If AI-generated voices becomes a commodity, what will happen?

(55:00) Why bigger companies are late adopters of AI tools

(56:30) The long-term moat of Play.ht and other applications

(1:00:00) Controversial voice-cloning and potential for societal abuse

(1:10:32) Commonly abused voices

(1:12:36) Rapid fire questions

SPONSORS: SHOPIFY | OMNEKY

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*Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off.*

Twitter:

@CogRev_Podcast

@_mfelfel (Mahmoud)

@labenz (Nathan)

Join 1000's of subscribers of our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack

Websites:

cognitivervolution.ai

play.ht

omneky.com

This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.