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maggiemayy:

aidashakur:

Once you become a certain age, it is your responsibility to unlearn behaviors that hinder your growth as a person.

Man I cannot stress this enough. The “this is how I am, take it or leave it” attitude is an act of immaturity. We all have toxic traits that we need to work on and as an adult it’s our responsibility to recognize the damage that they can do to the ones we love. We all need to put in more effort in becoming better individuals.

(via aint-nothing-but-a-drifter)

May 03, 2024

necronatural:

A long infographic with visual aids starting with the conversation: "Is Miku AI?" "No." "Are vocal synths ethical?" "Yes." "How so?" First section is Compensation. Hatsune Miku is made out of recordings by Saki Fujita. Saki Fujita is contracted to record Miku samples, and is paid for her work.ALT
Section: Recording Method. This is why Miku is not AI: Saki Fujita records from a list of sounds. It's necessary to have at least one recording per sound Miku should be able to sing. (Visual aid has examples of these sounds, such as "kaka".) She can also sing the recording list a second time in a different octave, so that she sounds more natural. Section: Labelling. The samples Saki Fujita sung are then labelled with what sound they make. These sounds are then reproduced by the engine. This is how Vocal Synth software such as VOCALOID and UTAU work. This model is called "concatenative". (Visual aid shows how "kaka" is split into "k" and "a", which is how it looks in the VOCALOID software.)ALT
Section: User interfacing. These voicebanks are very flat. Users must adjust the vocals themselves in order to produce singing. This is referred to as "tuning". If you listen to "Tuning BLANK in the style of Vocaloid producers", you can see there are countless ways to tune Hatsune Miku. It is considered a form of artistic expression. Compare Scratchin' Melodii's original songs to the updated versions. This is the result of hiring an experienced Vocaloid tuner. Question: How do AI Vocal Synths work? Answer: They are actually extremely similar!ALT
Section: Compensation. Let's use the Synthesizer V Studio library "Solaria". Solaria is made out of recordings by Emma Rowley. Emma Rowley is contracted to record Solaria samples, and paid for her work. Section: Recording. Emma Rowley then records several hours of singing data. This is the substance of the library. Section: Base model. The AI needs a base to understand what it's interpreting. Unlike images, there is a large amount of volunteer voice data out there. It's typically assumed that base models are trained ethically. (Visual aid shows Dreamtonics, the developer company behind Synthesizer V, asking a university "Can I use this voice data you made for TTS research?" and observing a person saying "Hi! Here is a few hours of singing data you can use for voice technology.")ALT
Section: Labelling. Labelling is also the same. The singing is broken up into phonemes the engine will interpret. Header Section: Deep Learning. In casual speech, "AI" refers to computer learning/sorting algorithms. "Diffusion" AI is the result of DNN; Deep Neural Network. It is the most drastic difference between concatenative and AI voicebanks. Section: Teaching the base model. The computer must be taught what the sounds are. The concept it builds is the "base model". (Visual guide is a cartoon of two computers talking. "Here's a british man saying 'bath'." "Added to my concept of 'a'." "Here's a Japanese girl saying 'baka'." "Added to my concept of 'a'.") Section: Training the voice model. Emma Rowley's recordings are then made into a reference point. This will make it so it will only render based on what it knows about Emma Rowley's singing. (Visual aid is a similar cartoon where a person talks to a computer while giving it a drive. Computer: "Now that I know what 'a' is, how should it sound?" Person: "I've labelled every time Emma Rowley says 'a'. Use this!")ALT
Section: Diffusion. The Solaria model uses everything it learned from Emma Rowley's recordings and the base mdoel to determine how 'a' sounds based on what note it's sung on, what's next to it, etcetera. Section: Interfacing. Tuners have been mixed on this; it sounds much clearer, yet the AI also has voice pitch models, so there's not as much as an incentive to develop your own personal flair. Question: Are voice changers ethical? Answer: Oh geez.ALT
Section: ARE they ethical? We don't need to break this down a third time. Voice changers are the generative AI of voice synthesis. It requires a lot less work of both the developer and the user, a simple applicator of everything the machine knows onto a piece of audio. What are the ranges of ethics? Vocaloid 6 is packaged with a voice changer. It is only for AI libraries, voiced by people who agreed to this and were compensated. This is definitely ethical. If you bought Hatsune Miku, you're nominally permitted to use the results as you see fit. Is tuning Miku and then creating a voice changer of her singing ethical? I genuinely don't know. There's also a question of art. If you were to project the voice actor onto your own personal tuning work, isn't that still artistic expression? A voice is different from an art style. Where is human expression being interrupted by automation? I can't make an explainer for those subjective concepts. I hope you're now educated enough to think on it yourself. End of image transcription.ALT

A lot of people try to explain this without knowing anything about how voice synthesis works, so here’s my breakdown on No, Hatsune Miku Is Not AI, And No, AI Voice Synthesis Is Not Bad.

(via narwhalsarefalling)

May 03, 2024

mescalitoart:

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This is the first out of 3 pieces I’m doing this month for BG3-themed Mermay.

Gale is water-deep. 🙃

May 03, 2024

pyromancing:

A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale.

(Art school illustration assignment that is about 99% done! I will post bigger image of finished version when it’s done!) You can buy this print on Society6 here!

May 03, 2024

antihypeaktion:

ogrish161:

nobuddy feels like they have a sharp attention span these days, right? and we all just click “agree on terms of service” because its hard to love yourself sometimes, well

enter Terms of Service, Didn’t Read: a website and a browser addon that streamlines the terms of service of many popular web services to be read by the tech sunday drivers.

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It’s graded from A (great) to E (awful) and if you have the addon you have access to the info about the website on your bar

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this post came back to me like a dear son from war, hello ol boy

(via monsteralikat19)

Apr 23, 2024

edgar-allan-possum:

angeltreasure:

fireflysummers:

Tired: finding a sealed tomb from Egypt or some other non white culture and declaring it cursed

Wired: doing the same for the catholics

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Catholicism is not just one culture but for the whole world. One sarcophagus finding is nothing! Wait until you guys learn about the catacombs. And no, we don’t consider this stuff to be cursed. An older Catholic Church will usually have someone buried underneath somewhere, especially under the altar, as is the tradition, which is not a secret. There are no curses there for us. Why should we fear death? O death, where is your sting? 😌

Also, ancient Egyptian tombs were thought to be cursed because they wrote curses on their tombs

(via purple-purple-pink-purple)

Apr 23, 2024

dduane:

angelsallfire:

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People… watch out for these things!

The saying applies with more than usual force here: if you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer: you’re the product being sold. (And maybe you’re the product being sold even if you are paying for it.)

DO NOT MAKE YOUR PERSONAL PHYSICAL DATA AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE WHO COULD THEN SELL IT TO THOSE INVESTED IN USING IT TO SURVEIL YOU AND POTENTIALLY CHARGE YOU WITH CRIMES.

(via neil-gaiman)

Apr 23, 2024

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