Voice actors are questioning audio platforms, alleging that their voice samples may have been used to train AI
ElevenLabs partners with Pocket FM to create more audio for less time and money - Rest of World
https://restofworld.org/2024/elevenlabs-pocket-fm/
'Pocket FM' is an audio platform founded in 2018. It distributes a wide range of stories, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and romance, as short audio readings of about 10 to 15 minutes each, and is based in India and has expanded to more than 20 countries. As of 2023, the number of downloads has exceeded 100 million. In 2024, it also launched the novel posting platform 'Pocket Novel,' where more than 250,000 novels have been uploaded by more than 150,000 authors.
Previously, the reading audio was created by narrators and editors, but now, in partnership with ElevenLabs, a company that specializes in reading AI, automated voices are used.
At the same time as partnering with ElevenLabs, Pocket FM also ran a '
Voice actor Surjan Singh suspects that Pocket FM may have used the contest to gather data for training an AI voice, citing the terms of the contest, which read: 'Entrants hereby grant to Pocket FM an exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, transferable, irrevocable and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, distribute, publish, create derivative works from and display the submitted voice sample in any media throughout the world.'
He then warned, 'While this may seem like a great opportunity for beginners, be aware that you will be asked for a 10-minute voice sample. Your voice could be cloned and used to create hours of content without your knowledge. There may also be hidden conditions. This is just my opinion, but please proceed with caution. If you are not asked by email, please read the terms of the contract carefully. This is to protect your rights. AI replicas are a real threat to voice actors.'
'Yes, I do have some concerns that they may be getting a range of expressions, accents and emotions from my voice samples,' Manohar Rao, who submitted more than 20 voice samples to the contest, told the news site Rest of World.
Pocket FM has since deleted the clause in question and stated that 'all audio samples are for reference purposes only and will not be reproduced or used for commercial purposes.'
Sam Scalar of ElevenLabs, which partnered with Pocket FM, explained that Pocket FM did not share any voice samples or data related to the contest, and that the AI was trained using data from ElevenLabs' voice library, which includes thousands of voice samples from the community in 29 languages suitable for text-to-speech.
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in Software, Posted by logc_nt