Microsoft's latest AI can replicate a voice from a three-second sample

[The Morning After]( Now available on your smart speaker and wherever you get your podcasts [Apple Podcasts]( | [Spotify]( | [Google Play]( | [iHeart Radio]( It's Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Microsoft’s latest research in text-to-speech AI centers on a new AI model, [VALL-E](. While there are already multiple services that can create copies of your voice, they usually demand substantial input. Microsoft claims its model can simulate someone's voice from just a three-second audio sample. The speech can match both the timbre and emotional tone of the speaker – even the acoustics of a room. It could one day be used for customized or high-end text-to-speech applications, but like deepfakes, there are risks of misuse. Researchers trained VALL-E on 60,000 hours of English language speech from 7,000-plus speakers in Meta's Libri-Light audio library. The results aren’t perfect: Some are tinny machine-like samples, while others are surprisingly realistic. Microsoft isn’t making the code open source, possibly due to the inherent risks. In the paper, the company said: "Since VALL-E could synthesize speech that maintains speaker identity, it may carry potential risks in misuse of the model, such as spoofing voice identification or impersonating." We’ve all seen the 1992 movie [Sneakers]( right? Right?! – Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed - [Samsung's first Unpacked event of 2023 takes place February 1st]( - [Hyundai managed to put its 'crab-walking' e-Corner technology into an Ioniq EV]( - [What an 'oddball' star in the Cygnus cluster can teach us about how masers are made]( - [The best fast chargers for 2023]( - [DJI's lightweight RS 3 Mini camera stabilizer is designed to be used with one hand]( - [‘TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge’ hits iOS and Android as a Netflix mobile exclusive]( [Amazon expands Prime shipping to more shopping sites]( But you’ll need a Prime subscription. 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