Sincerely, Jennifer x

I thought I’d do something different for today’s episode. Yesterday, I went down a rabbit hole of discussions about AI, and I discovered some interesting things, such as a tool that claimed to be able to clone voices.

I fed it some audio of my own voice, to see if it could create a decent copy, and while there are some obvious difference, I found the similarities to be quite interesting.

The tone of voice and cadence are very similar. My new robot voice has a bizarre American accent, but could pass as my evil twin from across the ocean in a Disney channel esque movie.

I found that the more I played with the settings, the closer it got to being me. No longer an evil twin from across the pond, but more a pretty good impression of me. It was… scary, but cool.

I began to wonder how long it would take before this podcast, and the many other ways I connect with you became the work of software, rather than me. It sounds crazy, like that episode of Black Mirror with Miley Cyrus.

It seems so ridiculous that it couldn’t be true, but I still worry about it all the same.

These shows. The things I write for you each day. The time that we spent together in live streams and fleeting posts and direct messages are our time together. I feel genuinely lucky that I get to share it with you, but what if, one day, there is no need for someone like me?

What if one day, each of us shares that time with a… well… you know…

What if my stories and poems become a product of AI? Some robot reads a few pages of my work and then launches into writing their own. No more writer’s block, no more delays because life gets in the way of creativity. Just non stop “content” wherever and whenever my audience wants it.

What if the voice cloning software gets so good that it can capture every “like” and “um”, the scratchy, silly way that I laugh, the intimacy of my whispers, and there is no need for me to sit down and speak with you, because one push of a button creates hours of audio for you to enjoy?

What if I am no more?

What will I do without you?