It seems that the late co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, has returned from the dead, thanks to artificial intelligence technology. This occurred in a completely fabricated interview, with the host's voice also being synthetic, that of the well-known podcaster Joe Rogan. Jobs, the creator of the iPhone, passed away on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56, after a battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
A voice synthesis company worked to clone the speech of the two men, making it seem like a genuine conversation between them, according to the British newspaper "The Sun." The fake Jobs said, "It's great to be on the program" hosted by Rogan. He continued, "Your audience is very different from average Apple users, which is good and nice."
The two discussed a range of topics, including Apple, spirituality, and family. Although the voices were very similar to those of the real individuals, at times they sounded somewhat robotic. The artificial intelligence technology relies on large amounts of audio content to build a voice resembling the original.
This was easier in Rogan's case, as he has hundreds of hours of podcasts available, but the situation was different with Jobs, whose voice is limited to interviews and Apple product launches, which are few.
The company "Play.ht," which produced the audio clip, stated that its AI had been trained on his biography and all available audio recordings online, allowing the machine to "bring his voice back to life." The company added that it believes all forms of content can be created through artificial intelligence but should be led by humans. It emphasized that the most creative work will depend on the human's ability to craft the desired content from the machine.
