AI Voice Synthesis: The Early Days and Implications of Text-to-Speech

The development of AI voice synthesis has raised ethical questions about the use of deceased individuals' voices and potential misuse for fraudulent activities. Early text-to-speech systems used articulatory and concatenative synthesis, while more recent methods like statistical parametric speech synthesis have improved naturalness and cost-effectiveness. However, advancements in voice synthesis also bring challenges such as copyright issues, creator compensation, scams, security concerns for financial institutions, and potential misuse of evidence in trials. Efforts to detect synthetic voices are ongoing, but current methods may not be sufficient to keep up with the rapid advancement of AI voice synthesis technology.