A pre-appraisal message to my vendors: But no camera required

You’ve all heard the news about OpenAI’s new Voice cloning tool.

Listening to it, I have to say it’s nothing short of remarkable - with just a 15-second recording and a little text, this AI can recreate a human voice with stunning accuracy.

But as with many of these new AI tools, there are risks to consider - this is an election year in the US, and obviously, the misuse of a tool like this could have serious consequences.

But are other tools almost there?

Descript has had a voice cloning tool for years called Overdub.

This has gotten so good, that you can barely tell it’s being used - and yes, we have used it when we’ve needed to fix something minor on the Daily Podcast - as well as on Elevate.

So far, nobody has written in to us to say, “Was that AI?” (Side note: Descript can also turn typing into talking the same way tools like Eleven Labs can).

But today the tool of the day is not either of those things, today we’re going to revisit something we did a while ago which blew my mind way back when, but blows my mind even more today.

Tool of the Day: HeyGen

HeyGen can now take 30 seconds of real-time recording video or 2 minutes of recorded video and create what’s called an instant or free avatar.

So, I tried the 2-minute upload with some pre-recorded webinars. Five minutes after uploading my footage, I’m creating a quick video every agent should send before they get to an appraisal:

OK, so the hand movements come from describing Mrs Patmore’s cooking style, but you have to agree the lip-synching is pretty good, and it does sound like me.

Here’s one where I recorded 30 seconds of real-time footage and created this:

Before I leave you, I want you to know that you don’t need to upload a video.

Almost any old (or new!) photo will do.

I think we can all agree we live in crazy, interesting, slightly scary times!

Happy Hunting 🚀