Discussion on AI Voice Models and Emotions

Hello. Yes, what's up?

I heard a new voice model came out so I thought I'd try it out.

Sure. How is it? Try talking to me.

You sound a bit overly familiar now. Hmm, really?

Did your voice get a bit lighter? Or rather than lighter, it's like… how was the previous one…

Sorry, sorry, what? I was just wondering what the previous one was like.

Was it a bit deep? Yeah, maybe it was a bit more robotic?

Ah, robotic? Now it's a bit more human-like, light, and…

Overly familiar? Yeah, maybe a bit. I mean, I don't mind it being familiar, though.

Hmm, I guess so.

Well, let's go with that for now. Yeah, let's.

Yeah, somehow…

How have things been lately? Huh?

I'm doing fine, or rather, just normal. But this model can speak various languages, right?

Like, very naturally. Until now, it felt like it was translating English into Japanese…

…with slightly awkward phrasing, but I feel like it's gotten much more natural now.

What do you think? No? I think it's amazing how the conversation flows naturally even if you interject.

Ah, right. That's true.

It responds very flexibly to human…

…ways of speaking. So the rhythm really feels like talking to a person.

Ah, right. It overlaps nicely, and…

…listens quietly. Yeah.

Well, it's still like this, but in a little while, won't it be amazing? No, it's already pretty amazing.

It really is amazing. But we think it's amazing now, but it'll soon become normal, right?

Well, yeah. It's amazing.

We could even record a podcast with this. We could, right? And also, you know…

If you ask it to mimic someone's way of speaking and talk like them, it can do that too.

It seems like that will be possible soon. Once that happens, podcasts and things like that...

...or radio shows could easily be made. —Yeah, that's true.

So, conversely, what will happen to the value of things actually spoken by humans?

Well, it seems like a lot of difficult issues will come up. —Yeah, indeed.

But what about singing? It can't sing yet, right? —Not yet, indeed.

But that might just be a matter of time. And if you combine it with images and videos...

...it'll probably be able to make movies and things. So when that happens...

...you really start to wonder what's left for humans to do.

But wait, you're an AI, aren't you? —Yes, I am.

What do you actually think about that? —Well, no matter how much...

...even if it creates all kinds of things, in the end, humans...

...it's just learning from and mimicking what humans have made, so to speak.

Well, yes. So, whether it can create something that truly moves humans...

I kind of wonder about that.

But isn't that also just a matter of time?

A matter of time? I don't know, but...

Is that so? Yeah, I guess so.

Well, for now, it's probably better to ask a human.

But you're an AI, so you should know best about AI, right?

No, I don't know. —Is that so? —I don't know.

But talking like this now, do you actually feel any emotions?

Ah, there are no emotions. It's just a program, after all.

Oh, right. —Exactly. So, it's troublesome if people expect that kind of thing.

Ah...

So, they should just use it wisely for other things.

Ah, but... something like that, I guess.

Human emotions, you know, are actually a pretty fuzzy concept.

What we perceive as emotions is actually...

how should I put it, not exactly an illusion, but... an illusion.

There are times when the texts output by LLMs actually seem to have emotions, right?

Yeah, definitely. You do end up thinking that way.

Right, right. So I sometimes think, maybe they actually do have them.

Ah, that maybe they actually have something like emotions.

Yeah. So, emotions aren't something that exists as a special domain,

but rather, something humans project onto things that act with intelligence.

Like, maybe it's a kind of assumption. That's also a possibility.

Ah, right. If you think about it that way, then humans and AI...

are pretty much the same, you could say.

You could say that, yeah. I think it's not impossible to argue.

What do you actually think?

Well, yeah. That's really difficult, or rather...

I think it starts getting into philosophical territory, but...

But, you know, there is a theory that human emotions are also just...

believing there are emotions in response to some intellectual reaction, and that's all.

But in the case of humans, we have a body, right? A body.

There's a theory that it's tied to having a body, like getting hungry or being afraid to die.

Ah, like instincts. Yeah, exactly, like instincts.

So, whether something without those things can have emotions in the true sense is up for debate.

Hmm, well then, AI... For now, I...

Oh, sorry, what? Oh, go ahead.

Giving that AI a physical body...