AI Friend or Foe with Rupal Patel and Ian Russell - Season 3 Episode 3

AI is a hot topic in the voiceover world. Joining me on a thoroughly interesting discussion are Rupal Patel and Ian Russell.  Rupal Patel is the Founder and CEO of VocaliD, a voice AI company that creates synthetic voices with personality for discerning brands that understand the power of customised voice and for individuals living with speechlessness who want to be heard in a voice that is uniquely theirs. VocaliD is a spin out of Rupal’s research at Northeastern University where she is an internationally renowned speech scientist and tenured professor. Named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative people in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, WIRED, and in major international news and technology publications. Ian is a British Actor living in the USA. Back in 2012 his wife bought him an experience gift for christmas - A one day Introduction to Voiceover - 2 years later 2014 he started his VO business. He's now a multi nominated and multi award winning talent (including Voice of the Year 2020), he can be heard in campaigns around the world including a global branding campaign for Intel and the UK localisation TV Ad for Noom. He's an established gaming and animation voice - You perhaps know him as Locke in Payday2, The Psyker in Warhammer 40k Inquisitor Martyr or Igor in the breakout Indie Hit, Chernobylite. We hear from Ian and Rupal their perspectives on how AI has a place in voiceover. By applying your business head and not your emotional one voice actors have new opportunities rather than threats as a result of AI disrupting the industry and gaining attention.   We hear how technology has moved on from the days of concatic speech synthesis and how resynthesis of the voice is done today with modern technology. Today’s neural text to speech is a new way of creating more flexible and higher quality AI voices with better tone and inflection. This also requires less speech input to create scalable AI voices. Which means a world of possibilities for voice actors! Having an AI built version of your voice means your voice can be used as a consistent brand element when you aren’t available, when you are on vacation perhaps, making it an element of the whole voice industry ecosystem and not the threat it's sometimes perceived to be.  Ian and Rupal tell us about the opportunities presented by AI and how to capitalise on this advancing technology and the types of work out there.    Are you ready to take your voiceover career to the next level? The Voiceover Network is an organisation for voiceover professionals providing voiceover training, webinars, The Buzz magazine, support, networking events and an amazing VO community. If you are thinking of getting into voiceover work or if you already work in this area and just want to know what’s going on in the industry – then this podcast is for you. Our host is Rachael Naylor, founder and CEO of The Voiceover Network as well as an experienced voiceover artist. Thanks to our Sponsors:  Hindenburg, Apogee, Source Elements and Focusrite.  Follow us on instagram.com/the_voiceover_network/ Follow us on facebook.com/TheVoiceOverNetworkOfficial Follow us on twitter.com/NetworkVO Follow us on linkedin.com/company/the-voiceover-network-ltd/