What Technology Was Used to Clone Imran Khan’s Voice?
Before the general elections to be held in Pakistan on February 8, former Prime Minister Imran Khan and many leaders of his party Tehreek-e-Insaaf are in jail or hiding, and due to this situation, PTI is facing difficulties in conducting its election campaign.
In such a situation, Tehreek-e-Insaaf adopted the route of the first ‘virtual meeting’ last Sunday to convey its message to the people, and with the help of artificial intelligence, a ‘voice clone’ of Imran Khan was also prepared.
That is, Imran Khan is in jail, but since August 5, 2023, his supporters, who have been waiting to hear Imran Khan’s speech, finally heard his speech on Sunday, although he did not give it directly, the voice was his.
The use of this technology during the election campaign in Pakistan raised many questions in the minds of many users.
In this virtual rally, PTI workers actively participated and along with important leaders of the party, hidden leaders wanted in several cases also addressed. With the help of artificial intelligence, Imran Khan’s message from the jail was also heard in which he said that ‘staying in jail for the sake of real freedom is like worship.’
Also read: Sonia Hussain: My first crush Is?
In a robot-like voice, Imran Khan can be heard confidently saying that ‘a fugitive is being compromised by the state institutions but this ladle should know that he will lose the election on February 8.’
Image source: CNN
Imran Khan’s voice clone added, “My Pakistanis, first of all, I appreciate our social media team for this historic effort (voice clone). You must be wondering how my days are going in prison. My commitment to true freedom is stronger than ever. My party is not allowed to hold processions. My people have been kidnapped while their families are being harassed.
According to the news agency AFP, PTI says that Imran Khan wrote a speech from prison and sent it through lawyers and this speech was put into an artificial intelligence software ‘Eleven Labs’ which Imran Khan Made his ‘voice clone’ with the help of his old speeches.
Also read: Pakistani Belly Dancer Yousha Hussain: Their stories in their own words
This clone was able to speak in a voice similar to Imran Khan’s real voice and thus in an online rally, Imran Khan delivered a speech with the help of technology despite being in jail.
Many companies like Eleven Labs offer their customers the opportunity to create a digital clone of their desired person by providing the required digital data.
US-based PTI’s social media chief Gibran Ilyas has told AFP that “this was a method with the help of which we crossed the obstacles.” We want to go into election mode. Any political rally of PTI is incomplete without Imran Khan.
Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Zulfi Bukhari told the BBC that Imran Khan is banned from making public and political connections, so we thought it would be better to encourage the voters if Imran Khan himself Talked.’
Also read: The schedule for General Election Pakistan 2024 released, Polling will be held on February 8
However, in the meantime, the question is being asked that in a country like Pakistan, where not only elections are on the horizon, but audio leaks based on the voices of celebrities, politicians, artists, and even judges are coming out day by day, the use of this technology. What will be the effects?
Many people believe that investigating the authenticity of voices (i.e., the authenticity of the voice heard in audio or video) is a separate issue, but as long as it is known that it is a fake voice, it is possible to do many things. Damage has been done.
What is Voice Clone?
According to PTI, the software of a company called Eleven Labs was used for Imran Khan’s voice clone.
When Eleven Labs released a version of its software for dubbing movies in January this year, it immediately went viral, but not for what it was designed for.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to impersonate someone else? You can do that with this new version of Eleven Labs.
This software creates a duplicate of any person’s voice in minutes. The result was that people cloned the voices of many famous people and made them say things that these people never said.
Also read: Terrorist attack on DI Khan, police check post failed
Matty Staniczewski, co-founder and CEO of Eleven Labs, said much of his company’s work is drawn from public-domain data with a predominantly American accent.
The company’s rules and regulations are pretty clear ‘You can only clone your voice’, but not everyone is following that rule.
Even before this, sites like ‘Four Chants’ have been used to utter hateful and racist phrases in the voice of many celebrities.
Eleven Labs has also believed that its platform has been used to spread hate.
Eleven Labs co-founder and CEO Matty Staniczewski says that 99% of the content is positive, and less than 1% of the content was against the rules and was hate-based or similar.
Also read: PCB Needs Women Umpires: The Course Was Also Introduced
However, after this situation, Eleven Labs has now changed its policy and only paying users can create voice clones.
Cupmoney is also now building a tool that will help identify someone who is abusing its platform.
Other risks of Voice Clone Technology
Not only can friends use this technology to spread specific messages in people’s voices, but it is now also used by fraudsters, mostly due to the ease of obtaining voice clones and the cloned voice.
US authorities have informed the public that fraudsters can pretend to be their relatives and mislead them with the help of voice cloning.
Also read: Muttahida has lit the torch of unity by giving a ticket to a Pashtun: Khalid Maqbool
The founder of Eleven Labs himself says that people will have to learn how much they can trust the softest sounds or images because of the possibility that they are created by artificial intelligence.
Experts say that before bringing such tools to the market, it should be thought about how society will react to it and what its possible uses could be. Because after all, it is one of those technologies that can have both good and bad uses.
