I can see it as helpful for indi devs who otherwise could not afford VA but like some voice. Since I could not thought something up at the moment I took a shortened version of your post to test most of the options (also I liked an AI voice saying it ain't there yet :P ). It varys IMO. Some did sound just like someone telling it; subjectively the lady voices do need some polish though IMO. But I'm not sure if I would feel them to be a bit off if I did not knew its AI.

Thats the part I used ('cause letter limit):

Much better quality.

The point was that this example feels much more lifelike than normal voice synths, so there isn't necessarily such a huge quality cap, at least for generic NPC chatter and such. A game could use this kind of AI voice synth for generic NPC chatter and dialogue, and still use voice actors for important pieces like the final death groan of the main baddie at the very end of the game.

I just tried how that AI synth handles "Aaaaaarrrrrrrrgh!", and it was more comical than dramatic. Sounded like he was yelling "Eeeeeaaawwwww!" in a high-pitched voice. So yeah. I guess we still need professional voice actors for dramatic death groans and shit. Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpZBwCp8rYc#t=175

Looks like it got the 4chan experience so restrictions and such are being applied.

I believe the change will happen gradually, just like it has happened until now. Lots of professions have vanished over time, and while admittedly some others have emerged, they are usually in the different fields and need less people.

I am more positive about this change as the "vanished" work and professions tend to be mundane tasks that no one nowadays would want to do anyway, like manual coal mining, 24/7 call operator connecting calls, a typist etc. In 50 years, people wonder how the heck anyone wanted to be a voice actor?!? Sounds boring.

It may be more and more people will make their living by entertaining each other (funny tiktok videos, giving in-depth lectures of subjects that interest people, professional boxing etc.), and societies will tax the owners of the automatic production facilities... or even become the communist dream where the society or state owns such automatic production facilities itself. (Then again "state owned" seems to be synonymous with "inefficient", so a state wouldn't probably have come up with automated Tesla Gigafactories etc., it took a private enterprise to achieve it.).

I'm surprised no-one's written an AI yet that warns AI researchers what the AI needs to guard against before they open it to public access. I mean, a checklist might do the job...

I belive you're entirely wrong.
I'm at my third year of unemployment, and many, MANY people I personally know -so, not only those I hear about, those would be astonomical numbers- are being laid off every day in favor of "automation" to "cut costs", read "we didn't grow as much as we wanted this year so we're firing you to save money to up our dividends again".
The future is bleak to say the least, and it wouldn't surprise me if we were less than a decade away from a devastating revolution like the French or Russian ones. We get continuously hammered, and not everyone can make a living by being funny.
Especilly since there is nothing funny about the current situation. I arrived to the point of not turning the lights on in evening becuase the bills are insane, tell me what's good and slowly changing the system about that.
Chnage might happen later, but I need to bloody eat right here and right now.

(Btw, I'm not angry at you, I'm ranting against the world)

At this point, I'm just waiting for them to be able to make exact lookalike replicas of actors.

Already well established stars won't have anything to worry about, but I can just see them having up and coming actors with no leverage sign "permission to use your likeness" clauses.

It will be interesting to see how that develops once we get there.

Depends on the kind of economy we have, but if we continue to have a jobs-driven one, at best, a constant state of unrest. At worst, social collapse.

People worry about terminator-style AI scenarios, but I think we'll hit many social quandaries with AI long before we reach something adjacent to general intelligence.

Take any developed jobs-driven country exactly as it is now, tell most people they don't have a job and see what happens. I think anyone who presumes that the military/police will successfully "contain" the situation hasn't been paying attention to recent world events.

I am unsure if that is due to automation and robots, or other factors, like many factory jobs and even IT work having moved from western countries to... elsewhere. Yeah I also became unemployed for two years or so when the IT work I was doing was moved to someone on the Indian department, I even taught the guy my job before I was laid off (among 1500 others from the same company). I guess they just felt we were too expensive when Indians were ready to do the same job much cheaper. Oh well.

If anything, automation etc. are bringing factories and such back from Asia to western countries, as the labor costs isn't quite such a huge factor anymore. Chinese robots don't work any cheaper than German or Italian robots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

In the 19th century the luddites felt textile machinery made them unemployed. Maybe it did, but how many people nowadays would be willing to do that kind of work, manually, for the rest of their lives, for a low salary that is barely enough to get some food on the table? Was life back then really better than what it is now, just because factories needed more people to do mundane and repetitive manual labor, than they do now?

I am already starting to feel computer AI is developing more intriguing looking "could have been" movie worlds and images.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLd1dzBLLkQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JueCKEuA450

If it happens in an instant, then yes, massive societal problems.

If it happens gradually over several generations, then maybe not, as the societies and people have time to adjust. There were lots of work in the 1800s that no one nowadays would want to do. Well, frankly, I wouldn't want to be a lowly paid Cambodian or Vietnamese rice farm worker today, either, but I guess someone still has to do it.

Rofl, what's with these unabomber voice examples, they're all so anti-technology.

Caught wind of this, and honestly, AI generated Seinfeld sort of works in an absurdist kind of way. If it didn't break after a good joke. "So I was on this diet, and realized it was just complaining about your food" before it went silent for ten minutes about.

I do not tend to agree. IMO the problem is not jobs-driven economies (people with good jobs tend to be happy), manipulation of those economies due to extreme corruption (the current state of many countries).

IMO the post-jobs world is simply code for a removal of personal impact on the world. No more self-actualization, influence on the world, or individual agency.

A few years back a friend of mine (and actor) was relating a story about a dinner with George Lucas. Lucas was extolling the day -- that he claimed was nearing -- when actors would no longer be needed for the filmmaking process. Being an actor, my friend was horrified. Lucas was excited.

(I like George, but I find it strange that the man who made THX1138 could be interested in removing humanity from filmmaking)

In short, AI will be creating everything we experience as news and entertainment soon... and then move to real life manipulation.

And in many contexts... When humans are no longer needed, they become a liability and are axed (both figuratively and literally).

To some an AI voice is a trivial novelty (I get it. It's "cool" to see technology advance and many probably think I'm ranting. sobeit), but IMO most are unaware of the 4th Industrial Revolution's true goals.

Alright, so this is a bit more disturbing. Podcast of the Lotus Eaters are going over the AI voice acting, though apparently you can put in any voice and it will do a decent job, picking up mannerisms of the voice actor.

Examples played include a Hitman mission (to assassinate Elon Musk in the style of Epstein)
Two sports news casters talking of bombing runs as though it were football at Hiroshima
Sean Hanity news segment talking about Job Biden's 'big fat juicy cock'
King of the hill.