[HN Gopher] Create AI videos by simply typing in text
___________________________________________________________________
Create AI videos by simply typing in text
Author : vladoh
Score : 241 points
Date : 2021-05-29 21:02 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.synthesia.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.synthesia.io)
| system2 wrote:
| 1 - We will review your video 2 - You will receive your video in
| your email 3 - You will receive an account creation invite
|
| What a great sample.
| nabakin wrote:
| Did you use a throwaway email too? I'm wondering if using one
| triggered a manual verification check
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Groups like nxivm are going to do strange things with this tech
| in the future.
| cupcake-unicorn wrote:
| What's the point of using AI if it needs to be manually reviewed?
| I suppose the outputs are also manually reviewed as well to keep
| from the AI going rouge?
| riffraff wrote:
| I believe the selling point is that it's cheaper than paying a
| person to act, where you'd still need to manually review it
| anyway.
| herval wrote:
| I know I'll will probably sound a bit Luddite by saying this, but
| just the examples already make me cringe: a welcoming video for a
| corporation saying "we're looking forward to have you here",
| narrated by a _bot_, is as dehumanizing as it gets. :(
| [deleted]
| ravenstine wrote:
| Aw man, it kind of made it seem like it would be generated fast,
| but then you find out after putting in your information that it
| requires manual review.
| Cyril_HN wrote:
| The eyes aren't quite right and sometimes.thr voice is a little
| off, but I probably wouldn't notice in a real world setting
| without prior knowledge.
| bredren wrote:
| Here is an instructional reading of advice I gave my friend over
| text on how to use enzymatic cleaner should his new kittens have
| an accident:
|
| https://share.synthesia.io/2761933d-4ec7-48c7-b67e-85fc9d686...
| lxe wrote:
| Is this based on a paper/demo previously posted on HN? A vaguely
| remember seeing the faces elsewhere.
| 0xx wrote:
| Founder here
|
| Maybe - one of my co-founders is Prof Matthias Niessner who's
| been behind a large chunk of the seminal and widespread
| research in this space.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk [2]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc5P2bvfl44
| anotheryou wrote:
| I'm more stunned by the good speech synthesis than by the already
| good visuals.
|
| Does anyone know what's under the hood for the text to speech?
| anonytrary wrote:
| https://share.synthesia.io/d8860a05-2870-4315-9316-b03cbc76a...
|
| Animations are pretty good. Pronunciation could use some work.
| There also does not seem to be a way to influence the inflection,
| which is an absolutely crucial component for sales pitches. It's
| not so much what you say, but how you say it. Also, the right
| people have to sell the right things. Words coming from Elon's
| mouth in regards to cryptocurrency have a far greater effect on
| market behavior than the exact same words coming from this AI
| person's mouth.
| stevenicr wrote:
| Avoid getting your video rejected. Please make sure you adhere to
| our content guidelines. Please keep your script professional and
| business related. Political, sexual, personal, criminal and
| discriminatory content will not be tolerated or approved.
|
| Ahh.. the anchor fm problem.. guess I'll need an open source
| version.
|
| I started toying with libreBot I think it's called - which allows
| you to do anything you want with these things if you self-host
| license for a grand I think it was.
|
| This synthesia didn't even get the first sentence I tried. It
| also requires a 'business email' and agree to terms that includes
| "I agree to receive occasional product information as per
| Synthesia Privacy Policy *"
|
| trying hard to keep the genie in the bottle aren't they.
| everyone wrote:
| Worked fine for me, just used tempmail
| https://share.synthesia.io/4cc3f6d7-dfdb-49b3-b16d-9c02ab702...
| This totally cracked me up.
| krapp wrote:
| Curse the fun police, I wanted to make a virtual corporate
| avatar recite gangsta rap lyrics.
| ben_w wrote:
| This sounds like exactly the sort of thing Omega Mart would
| want to experiment with. Though perhaps they might feel an AI
| would be overkill this case...
| jshprentz wrote:
| Bot Libre [1] "allows anyone to create their own chat bot for
| free, including free hosting, even for commercial bots." Paid
| plans [2] provide more bot interactions, larger knowledge
| bases, and design support. You can download the free community
| edition [3] to run on your own server.
|
| [1] https://www.botlibre.com/
|
| [2] https://www.botlibre.com/upgrade.jsp
|
| [3] https://www.botlibre.com/download.jsp
| stevenicr wrote:
| yes this is the one! - I have kicked around a few tutorials
| on how to manipulate the digital avatars add-in.. So far I'm
| loving everything I've found with this one.
|
| I may end up hiring some merc help to get it self hosted and
| running with some customized avatars.. the custom digital
| avatar stuff can be really complex if you want it to be -
| which I like - but I know I would spend weeks playing with
| all that, and someone that knows the digital stage / lighting
| tools out there can likely slap together what I would need
| for a small launch project in a day.
| devops000 wrote:
| I created a step-by-step tutorial, but the voice still sounds too
| robotic. Unfortunately it doesn't inspire trust to users.
| Exuma wrote:
| Just give me the ability to be offensive. Who are you to stop me?
| YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
| >> Synthesia lets you create great business videos in minutes.
| Say goodbye to actors, film crews and expensive equipment.
|
| Yay! At last! And when we've automated away everyone's work, also
| say goodbye to synthesia and every other automation service,
| because there's no business left to use it. Woo-hoo, future
| world, here I come!
| question000 wrote:
| Can you think of one good use for this product?
|
| No I'm not asking if you think you can you use this to make
| money, I'm asking do you personally want to sit through a video
| of a robot telling you do things? Are we supposed to believe this
| is preferable to simply reading this or hearing recorded audio?
| This is flat out consumer hostility, basically telling your
| customers to talk to a sock puppet instead of a real person, I
| hope this fails, I would pay money to make this illegal.
| visarga wrote:
| Yes, interactive language exercises. Use it to create tailored
| dialogues, like the Pimsleur tapes.
| soldehierro wrote:
| The TTS is fairly good, but it's still TTS. Imo, real native-
| speaker content is a must for any language program worth it's
| salt.
| drusepth wrote:
| I rely on reading lips for a good portion of my hearing
| comprehension. This might not be better than seeing an actual
| person speaking, but I'd VASTLY prefer this over hearing
| recorded audio. Reading is a separate beast, but for boring
| stuff that you just want to listen to instead of actively
| reading, I can see this being preferred also.
| ctdonath wrote:
| Employment laws being overbearing, hiring a script reader may
| be practically illegal ("living wage", mandatory health care,
| ... I just need some words read).
| cush wrote:
| I think their hook is it's only $3/min, which is pennies on the
| dollar compared to getting a real produced video. It's not
| useful yet though, because it's creepy.
| Mehdi2277 wrote:
| The website includes a lot of examples. I think making it
| easier to create marketing videos (including advertisements,
| but also internal ones) is one use case.
|
| Another one outside marketing is making educational lecture
| videos is a lot of work even with speech pre-written. Often
| execution goes through several passes. If we continue in the
| direction of moocs/online education than making it easier for
| teachers to make videos is valuable.
|
| Multi language support they have is also big use case.
| darepublic wrote:
| Gonna have dynamic open world video games too, where custom cut
| scenes can play based on your characters actions.
| flemhans wrote:
| Scripts require manual review. It's not automated
| jelling wrote:
| I'm deeply interested in synthetic media but it's hard to believe
| there is a shortage of people who want to be video presenters.
| 0xx wrote:
| Not that different from being a regular stock photo/video
| actor.
| smusamashah wrote:
| The require agreeing to sending promotional emails before
| creating the video.
| ratsimihah wrote:
| The lack of empathy in her voice is chilling
| Meph504 wrote:
| Will not demo anything that requires me to put in that much of my
| data to try their product.
| artur_makly wrote:
| I want to see her on my wall, every day, bald, with green eyes.
| Spouting Shakespearean slurs at Alexa, then following up with
| some Rumi poetry, and a dash of Allan Watts..all powered by a
| Markov chain.
| K0balt wrote:
| Uncanny valley meets mixed messages and bad delivery.
|
| The incoherent facial expressions actually manage to confuse the
| message more than the dissociated pronunciation.... "witch is
| know small feet".
|
| This tech is a neat trick at this stage but is less useful than
| just leaving the text as text, in fact adding negative value to
| an already fully functional process.
|
| Fiver is a better option, and I would not recommend that.
|
| For an interesting and highly unethical experiment, someone
| should raise a thousand infants with this drivel and see what
| happens...I'm going to posit that the result is not good.
| Children's narrations is exactly where this is headed though, I
| can see this as a multimillion view no effort YouTube babysitter.
|
| Children find a pleasant, smiling female face soothing...so this
| is going to be another way that the dollar and human laziness
| will use AI to make the world a slightly worse place.
| LordDragonfang wrote:
| Synthesia is also the name of a much more established, extremely
| popular midi/piano visualisation software[1]. If you've ever
| looked up "<song> piano tutorial" on youtube, you've probably
| seen that program.
|
| It's a shame they chose that name, since it was such a great play
| on words for the midi software (synesthesia is sound into
| colorful visuals, and midi uses synths) whereas this product has
| basically no relation.
|
| [1] https://synthesiagame.com/
| Jiocus wrote:
| Synesthesia isn't specific to just visual experience from
| auditory stimulus. It really denotes any mix of senses, be it
| experiencing visuals when listening to music (reported by e.g.
| LSD users), bodily sensations from colors et.c.
| codetrotter wrote:
| > this product has basically no relation
|
| Sure it does. It synthesizes video from text.
| drdeca wrote:
| Ok, but is there anything that connects it to the word
| synthesia beyond a connection to the word synthesis?
| Synthesia means something more specific.
|
| Is there anything other than the "synthes" that synthesis
| shares with synthesia , connecting this product to synthesia
| in particular?
| Jiocus wrote:
| "Synthesia" is probably an amalgam of "synthesis,synthetic"
| and "synesthesia". You would really have to ask the author
| to find out.
|
| Edit: It's worth pointing out that while the words look
| quite alike, they don't mean the same thing,
|
| _synthesis_ : to put together
|
| _aesthesia_ : ability to feel or perceive sensations
| lkschubert8 wrote:
| Is synthesia an actual word? I'm not able to find any
| reference to it that isn't the piano software or this. Are
| you thinking of synesthesia?
| drdeca wrote:
| I am thinking of synesthesia, yes.
|
| Thought the piano software was named after that word.
| Didn't check the spelling.
| geuis wrote:
| Here's a sample video with a custom script produced earlier
| https://share.synthesia.io/4b75b584-9b3b-4a96-86c2-6b34b8711...
| ilaksh wrote:
| Interesting. I hope the models were paid adequately, considering
| that they can now use them effectively for free infinitely.
|
| Reminds me of the movie The Congress.
|
| Obviously this technology has a long way to go, but it seems that
| that actors should feel less secure about their jobs being
| resistant to automation.
| 0xx wrote:
| Founder here
|
| Actors get a % rev share + upfront fee to work with us :)
| dalbasal wrote:
| Ari has really good foresight/insight on media. I thought the
| commodification aspect was a little thick/cheesy att. Now, I
| think it's dead on.
|
| As more things become intellectual property, the tendency of
| property to pool becomes severe.
| FraserGreenlee wrote:
| These videos are incredibly life like. I can see many virtual
| companions being made with this.
| 0xx wrote:
| Glad you like it!
| rkagerer wrote:
| You want my email to try it out? Hard pass.
| aero-glide2 wrote:
| Just use temp-mail.org or something similar.
| xiphias2 wrote:
| Here's the cookie text if you are lazy to read it...it sounds a
| bit creepy: https://share.synthesia.io/a4159eee-f70b-4318-a8bc-
| ec0fdf6af...
| minxomat wrote:
| Her mouth missed multiple consonants, especially jarring was
| the "t" in "about".
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| That jarring transition when she says the word "interact"
| reminds me of the glitches from Max Headroom.
| yhoneycomb wrote:
| Thanks for posting this. I wanted to try this but didn't want
| to give out my info.
|
| Honestly, I'm not impressed.
| system2 wrote:
| I would pay for any product that impresses you if this
| didn't.
| trompetenaccoun wrote:
| The product is alright, the annoying requirements to sign
| up, receive spam and a long list of forbidden content
| isn't.
| plutonorm wrote:
| Jesus. If aliens dropped out of the sky and showed you
| technology so powerful that it allowed you to restructure
| reality itself according to your imagination, you would still
| be like... meh, I wanted rainbows made entirely of blue but
| that's clearly aqua marine.
| andrewmcwatters wrote:
| Ah dang, I pasted some literal Lorem Ipsum in to see how it would
| sound from the AI, and it just puts you through an invite funnel.
| Oh well.
| pedalpete wrote:
| I think in general the quality is quite good, but the characters
| lack personality. I think that is the opportunity. Create
| something with more lively movement. Think the Sham-wow guy.
|
| Anybody can stand blankly in front of a camera without emotion.
| But this is an impressive start.
| 0xx wrote:
| Founder here. AMA :)
|
| To answer a few recurring questions in the thread
|
| ---> Use case.
|
| Video is a way more effective way to communicate than text. Not
| for the HN crowd, but if you're a blue collar worker a 2 minute
| video in your native language is much preferred to a 5 page pdf
| for training.
|
| Anyone who has tried to record a simple corporate video know the
| pain of cameras, film crews, 25 takes to get one that works and
| post production. Cumbersome, slow and multidisciplinary. By the
| time the video is done the content is out of date.
|
| Synthetic video is not yet at the quality of real video.
| Eventually it will be. But the mistake many are making here is
| comparing it to real video; it should be compared with text.
|
| In X years we'll be able to make Hollywood films on a laptop
| without needing anything but time and imagination. Just like we
| can digitally compose music in Ableton, create images in
| Photoshop and type novels on keyboards rather than with pen and
| paper.
|
| My (obviously biased;)) belief is that synthetic media will
| eventually become foundational technology that will move media
| production from cameras/microphones to API's. We'll be able to do
| all kind of things we couldn't do before.
|
| Eg. personalized and interactive rich media, video-driven
| chatbots and eventually Hollywood blockbusters made by your
| favourite YouTuber from his or her bedroom.
|
| ---> Uncanny valley
|
| Simulating real video is incredibly hard. We're constantly
| improving and launching more expressive synthesis soon.
|
| From our tests with some of our largest clients 8/10 people don't
| realise it's a synthetic video (unless they are asked to look for
| it).
|
| ---> Tech
|
| Has been developed over the last 3 yrs. Origins/team from
| Stanford/UCL/TUM.
|
| Learning: Going from research to working, scaleable product is
| _hard_ and takes time. But very rewarding when it works.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk [2]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc5P2bvfl44
|
| ---> Bad uses
|
| Bad actors will do bad things with synthetic media. Like with any
| other technology from smartphones to cars. We're moderating all
| content and building safeguards and verification + working with
| FAANG and others on detection and provenance technology.
|
| Recommended read - deepfakes perfectly follow the story arc of
| any new, powerful technology:
| https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17456916209193...
|
| ---> Actors
|
| Real actors getting rev share + upfront free from every video
| generated with their likeness. Like being a stock photo actor.
| devinplatt wrote:
| The Snoop Dogg advertisement rebranding case study was pretty
| impressive to me, since there were obvious savings from reuse.
| Neat to see how this technology could be integrated in a subtle
| way with other editing techniques.
|
| It seems to me that this technology could have immediate
| application to dubbing over curse words in movies (since that's
| already done in a not so subtle way today).
|
| The next step I see in that progression is full dubbing for
| translation, which already exists in a very conspicuous form.
| The old meme about out of sync karate movie dubs comes in mind.
|
| How close do you think this technology is to use for syncing
| lips in Hollywood tier movie dubs using real voice actors? What
| are the main obstacles left to achieving that?
| firefoxd wrote:
| Impressive. Funny enough I've started to see those faces appear
| on YouTube. The intention may be to create these corporate style
| videos, but I'm counting down the minutes until my aunt starts
| forwarding questionable things on WhatsApp.
| shannifin wrote:
| While the tech is impressive in itself, still doesn't look to be
| something I'd pay for. The lip sync is annoyingly off, and the
| bland expressions that comes from not understanding context make
| the communication even worse. If having a visual talking head is
| that important for a project, still seems better to just hire
| someone.
|
| (On a side note, I'm not sure I understand the appeal of
| emotionally bland fake-smile talking heads in general, even when
| they're real.)
| amelius wrote:
| Just wait until big companies start doing it. Then everybody
| else _must_ do it too. Just look at how people copied the
| boring corporate web style which is now all over the place.
| prox wrote:
| Mass influencing with added custom targetting. Or fake id-ing
| someone else. Honestly I can't think of anything other than
| that. It's just information pollution for the most part
| probably. Now if they would have worked on a digital sign
| language avatar, that would be something innovative or useful.
| amelius wrote:
| I suspect there's a whole new wave of content farming coming
| ...
| everyone wrote:
| Would robotic AI sign language avatar be better than just
| text?
|
| Would it not just have the same issue the existing product
| has for non-deaf people?
| prox wrote:
| It's just something I tried to come up with. Instead of a
| caption, a digital avatar giving context might be more
| useful ?
| joshxyz wrote:
| You see the flaws and you're right, those are room for
| improvements. It needs to feel more human, and it's slowly
| getting there.
|
| Use cases are education, museums, games, sweet sweet jesus
| hyperpallium2 wrote:
| rel. given a script, "generating all aspects of a cinematic
| scene, including staging, acting, editing, framing and lighting
| in Assassin's Creed Odyssey."
|
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=DFM5zbekZ7c hour-long dev talk (GDC)
| MarkMc wrote:
| Impressive, but not quite good enough to avoid the 'uncanny
| valley' - the lips are not perfectly synced to the audio. Also it
| should allow a way _stress certain words_ in the input script.
| aalfson wrote:
| This is really cool.
| doener wrote:
| This site does not let me try the demo without giving them the
| permission to send spam eMails.
| cush wrote:
| The sample videos made me incredibly uncomfortable
| gibba999 wrote:
| $3/minute of video seems a bit steep. $180/hour of video.
| lethologica wrote:
| I would rather watch paint dry than an hour of this uncanny
| valley... thing.
| hirako2000 wrote:
| Welcome to the new economy.
| andersco wrote:
| Very close but not quite human. A text book example of the
| uncanny valley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
| jordhy wrote:
| I love it 1000%. Need to create videos for a new crypto. This
| helps translate the videos to 10 different languages and kick off
| a global service. It's not perfect but it's fast and looks very
| professional.
| evan_ wrote:
| A really creepy use case for this would be to combine it with one
| of those IP-to-company name lists. If you visit a vendor it could
| play a video greeting you by mentioning your business name.
| "Click here to learn what we can do for Acme Industries!"
|
| Again, super creepy and not really clear if it would drive
| engagement.
| junon wrote:
| No thanks. I don't like having to give you all of this personal
| information you really don't need in order to try your product.
| erichurkman wrote:
| Are sales spam emails going to start including personalized
| videos? I guess I'll look forward to the "Hello dollar sign
| firstname. I'm dollar sign agentname. My colleague recommended I
| connect with you, as you both work at dollar sign employer"
| template misfires.
| boboche wrote:
| Would have been interresting to try out but unfortunately, the
| email prompt ended my evaluation. A lot of people will probably
| stop there and move on as well.
| nemothekid wrote:
| Wow this feels like a blast from the past. There used to be a
| service that did exactly this (little help chats with "AI"
| generated voices), in the mid 2000s but instead of having human
| avatars they were animated. Seeing the woman speak immediately
| unlocked a memory in my kid brain.
| visarga wrote:
| I was aware of "Sitepal" since before 2010.
|
| https://www.sitepal.com/demo
| pdenton wrote:
| Had the same thought, it made video's like this:
| https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
|
| Looks like it's still a thing as well: https://www.nawmal.com/
| alexfromapex wrote:
| Warning: you have to agree to receive marketing emails from them
| [deleted]
| codeulike wrote:
| Their David Beckham video is pretty good
| https://www.synthesia.io/post/david-beckham
| 101008 wrote:
| Oh, they created the Lionel Messi too? It was AWFUL. Messi's
| voice was so far from his real voice that we created a few
| videos as a joke with my friends.
| 2bitencryption wrote:
| There's something quite cyberpunk about smiling AI-generated
| corporate headshot faces extolling the wonders of <insert product
| here>. And I don't mean that in a good or bad way. I imagine
| we'll start seeing these all over the place quite soon.
|
| I mean, combine it with GPT-3 and you've got something that's
| nearly science fiction. Really interested to see where this goes.
| selimonder wrote:
| this is actually what alethea.ai is doing
| p-sharma wrote:
| People don't want to talk to computers, that's why chatbots (in
| their current form) fail one after the other. People also don't
| want to listen to emotionless robots. As long as this technology
| is not 100% accurately mimicking a human, the Uncanny valley
| effect will kick in and just leave an uncomfortable feeling.
| Gualdrapo wrote:
| It forces you to select that option to receive promotional emails
| from them before submiting a script.
| going_to_800 wrote:
| What awful comments here, you're all criticizing something really
| exciting. Of course AI can't beat real humans, what do you
| expect? But it's closer we've ever been, especially since is
| available to consumers. People in sales and marketing know how
| valuable is this on improving conversion rates... if you're not
| in those fields, that's not for you, saying something it useless
| just because you have no knowledge in other domains, it's highly
| ignorant.
| detaro wrote:
| If the only exciting thing about it is potential for more
| manipulative marketing, then "awful" comments feel warranted.
| kubb wrote:
| Sure, or this is what came out of an effort by some startup to
| monetize existing ML technologies in a low hanging fruit use
| case of generating a deep fake. Might not be the revolution
| we're all waiting for.
| vorhemus wrote:
| If I think about things that should be automatized with robots
| in this world my number one priority would be boring or
| exhausting work like repairing roads, mine work, deliver goods
| from A to B. Why should we replace the "human" part in human-
| to-human communication with robots when social interaction is
| one of the pillars that define us? I'd rather speak with an
| unfriendly real person in a call center than an emotionless
| "friendly" robot.
|
| But yes, if "improving conversion rates" is your main priority,
| it may be helpful.
| istorical wrote:
| So where's the version that allows NSFW content? Can't be the
| only one who wanted to test this with erotica.
| anonytrary wrote:
| Valid use case! Starting with porn is probably a better
| business idea to be honest. Porn is like a drug, easy to sell,
| and when it differentiates itself, it stands out. That's why
| there's stepmom and 3D tentacle porn. It's different, people
| gain tolerance to average porn. This idea applied to porn would
| probably have some novelty factor.
| hashmal wrote:
| It must be available somewhere, in order to satisfy the rule
| 34.
| cs702 wrote:
| Pretty good.... but not quite there yet, in my humble opinion.
|
| The lips, eyes, and facial features move in natural ways, but the
| head remains frozen in a somewhat unnatural manner. It's just
| inside the uncanny valley, with barely perceptible creepiness.
|
| I would hope to see improvements to make face/neck movements look
| more natural, to overcome these issues over time!
| Swizec wrote:
| Fantastic technology and I love that the videos look and sound
| super lifelike. The face looks like most instagram influencers
| with vanilla broad-appeal pretty faces, which I guess is the
| style these days.
|
| But what's the point?
|
| If you're gonna send someone a soulless corporate drone video, is
| that really better than a soulless corporate email? I thought the
| goal of doing video was that it's more personable and human ...
| an AI video doesn't quite hit those goals does it?
| trhway wrote:
| >video was that it's more personable and human ... an AI video
|
| Can be made even more personable and human and can be
| customized not just for broad appeal, it can be individually
| customized for the appeal to the target person based say on the
| target's profile, browsing history, etc. Similar to how
| Cambridge Analytics did for text based messages.
| visarga wrote:
| This could be the face of an AI personal assistant, with GPT-3
| like dialogue skills and using web search to find relevant
| information in order to solve its tasks.
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