Is Voice Over?
When AI Steals Your Voice, Donating Your Body
It's not a particularly good time to be a voice actor. Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage, a husband and wife who both make a living from their voice work, were thinking just that last summer as they listened to a podcast about the rise of AI and the damage it could do to careers like theirs. Then they realized something. "The podcast had an unexpected twist. To underline the threat from A.I., the host conducted a lengthy interview with a talking chatbot named Poe. It sounded just like Mr. Lehrman. 'He was interviewing my voice about the dangers of A.I. and the harms it might have on the entertainment industry,' Mr. Lehrman said. 'We pulled the car over and sat there in absolute disbelief, trying to figure out what just happened and what we should do.'" NYT (Gift Article): What Do You Do When A.I. Takes Your Voice? "Two voice actors say an A.I. company created clones of their voices without their permission. Now they’re suing." The company that deployed the voiceover is telling the plaintiffs to talk to the hand. And I wouldn't be surprised if we find out it's Mr. Lehrman's hand.
+ "Gradually I realized that my best shot at understanding how chatters operate would be to join their ranks. As an English major who’s been fortunate enough to make a living with words for more than 20 years, I naively assumed I was qualified to land a gig. And as a writer, I was curious to learn what kind of artistry the job would require—what it takes to ensure that OnlyFans users never doubt they’re really interacting with the objects of their desire." Wired: I Went Undercover as a Secret OnlyFans Chatter. It Wasn’t Pretty. "Your online influencer girlfriend is actually a rotating cast of low-wage workers. I became one of them." You officially can't be sure who you're talking to or texting with or receiving an email from anymore. That's why I always try to sneak in a typo or a glaring grammatical error—so you'll know it's really me.
2
Tools of the Trade
"In November 2019, the sheriff’s department in Stanislaus County, California sold 19 Glock pistols used by deputies. They went to LC Action, a gun dealer in San Jose repeatedly cited by federal inspectors for violations of federal gun laws. Over the next 2 years, one of those guns ended up at a crime scene more than 2,000 miles away. Indianapolis police recovered the gun and linked it to the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old at this apartment complex. That’s not rare. It’s one of at least 52,529 guns once owned by police, but later used in crimes." CBS News Investigations: Police departments sell their used guns. Thousands end up at crime scenes. What comes around goes around...
3
Tripping On Your Way Out of Pain
"For Court Wing, a former martial artist and CrossFit trainer, the most surprising thing about participating in a 2020 clinical trial at NYU for psilocybin and major depressive disorder wasn’t that his depression — which had resisted treatment for over five years — disappeared. It was that his long-standing chronic pain, something unrelated to the trial’s focus, also disappeared. 'Shockingly, I was in complete remission.' And if you start poking around the internet or psychedelic conferences, a whole subterranean trove of similar stories opens up. An estimated 51 million Americans suffer from chronic pain — excruciating conditions like migraines, phantom limb pains, or fibromyalgia — and often go without effective treatments." Psychedelics could treat some of the worst chronic pain in the world.
4
I Want Your Body
"There are some questions humans may never truly answer — like, what happens to us after we die? But for my grandparents, the question of what would happen to their bodies was easy: They would be donated to science, specifically to the University of California, Los Angeles, which wasn’t far from their home. They weren’t sentimental, and liked the idea they could be helpful to someone else. Then, in 2004, scandal engulfed the body donor program at UCLA. Its director was accused of illegally stealing and selling body parts, and later pleaded guilty." (And, oddly, this is not an isolated case.) WBUR with an update from the parts department: 5 things to know before donating your body to science.
5
Extra, Extra
A Spray Area: "Walgreens on Wednesday said it will offer its own cheaper version of the over-the-counter opioid overdose reversal spray naloxone. The drug is available online and will be in all stores at the end of the month." Why is news about a store-branded naloxone clone top news in NextDraft? Because the problem it addresses is massive. US drug overdose deaths decreased in 2023 for the first time in five years. But the numbers are still shocking.
+ Protection v Racket: "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal watchdog created in response to the 2008 financial meltdown may continue to operate in its current form, brushing aside claims from the payday lending industry that could have severely jeopardized years of consumer-friendly banking regulations."
+ Manhattan Simposium: As expected, things are getting pretty heated during the cross-examination of Michael Cohen. I'm not sure anything that happens in the court room can be as sad as what's been happening outside of it, where Trump enablers are trashing the trial. "Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., took a shot at the rolling cast of VP wannabes and MAGA House members attending Trump’s trial over the past several days, saying each was trying to out-“simp” the others. (Simping refers to someone who is overly submissive or doting in a way that’s often not reciprocated.) 'It was like ‘The Hunger Games’ of simp,” Fetterman said of the string of Trump allies showing up in Manhattan. “It’s like, ‘I’m gonna simp’ and, like, ‘I’ll simp harder.’ … And, of course, they all have a uniform and it’s kinda sad.'" Here's the latest from CNN and NBC.
+ Unsettled: "How did a young nation turn so quickly on its own democratic ideals, and at what price? Any meaningful answer to these questions has to take into account how a half-century of lawless behavior that went largely unpunished propelled a radical form of ultranationalism to the center of Israeli politics. This is the history that is told here in three parts." This isn't about Gaza. It's about the West Bank settler movement. But it's very related to the current crisis because it's so connected to the power brokers in Netanyahu's government. NYT Mag: The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel. And The Atlantic (Gift Article) on the opposition to this group. The Israeli Defense Establishment Revolts Against Netanyahu.
+ Can You Hear Me Now? "The White House has blocked the release of audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel about his handling of classified documents, arguing Thursday that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings 'to chop them up' and use them for political purposes."
+ The Seconds Are Short, The Years Could Be Long: "Authorities said they executed their elaborate heist in April 2023, stealing $25 million from traders in just 12 seconds by fraudulently gaining access to pending transactions and altering the movement of cryptocurrency." Two former MIT students charged with stealing $25 million of crypto in 12 seconds.
+ The Kicker is Wide Right: "Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world." Backlash over NFL player Harrison Butker’s commencement speech has reached a new level. He also called pride month a deadly sin, quoted Taylor Swift, and told the male graduates to "be unapologetic in your masculinity." (I mean, he's a kicker...)
6
Bottom of the News
"Another theory that led to much online debate is the Cube Rule, which categorizes food based on the location of the starch. Using the Cube Rule, a burrito is a calzone, or a dish fully enclosed in starch, and a taco is just that — a taco, or a product with starch on the bottom and two opposing sides. A hot dog is also considered a taco under the Cube Rule." Don't get that? Well, you need to understand that and much more if you want to be qualified to answer one of the key questions of our time. WaPo (Gift Article): Are tacos and burritos sandwiches? A judge in Indiana ruled yes.