[not LV]Voiceover Artists Recruitment, Text-to-Speech Product

[bennyhu]

Hi all,

This is Tony Hu. I am the Strategy & BD manager at Alio Innovation, an AI Hardware startup that has already procured funding from Lenovo.
I would like to recruit some VoiceOver artists, both male and female, for a text-to-speech artificial intelligence training model. We eventually aim for somewhere between 1500 and 3000 voice records.
Our company is dedicated to creating the next generation computing platform that integrates both hardware and software, backed by an innovative, AI-empowered human-computer interaction mechanism.
The first generation product will be an AI-native device, featuring innovative hardware specifications, with practical application scenarios and mature product experiences, set to launch in the second half of this year.

Types of voices & tone samples for which we are looking:
Business (Male, Body Guard, Either one's tone is fine)：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRUEMdgTYTU
Business (Female)：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSq48iqiMQ
Youthful & Convivial (Male, young Zac Efron type)：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OatxYBh8ue8
American Sweetheart (Female, Valedictorian)：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO3k9ZukvWs
Tender (Female, Scarlett Johansson type): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ApzBuFmIY
Tender (Male) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9ij_t9RH-8

A few common questions asked by our collaborators:
- What are the purposes of the recording?
To provide training data for a Text-to-Speech model.
- Is the voice going to be replicated?
Yes, the recordings will allow the TTS to emulate the emotional range provided by the actor.
- Will the voice data be sold or sub-licensed to others?
We will not sell voice data to any other party in any kinds of format. There will be no commercial use of those data, either from our end or the user end.
- How long will the voice data be used?
We do not intend to keep any voice data once those data have been fed into our TTS model and the training is complete
- Will there be any exclusivity with regard to voice tapes recorded?
No.
- What is your best estimate for the total budget for the project, and will there be any royalties?
It will be a one-time payment and no royalties. The specific amount is subject to discussion. We welcome proposals.

If you are interested in this project, please send an email to hutianxing@alio-ai.com, or reply to this post in the forum. Once we have reached an agreement, we will send over the demo script. The demo script will be concise.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Thanks a lot !

[redrun]

Hello Tony,
I've moved this thread to the Off-Topic forum, as it doesn't relate directly to our mission of making all Public Domain works available in human-read audio form. Other admins might make or request further changes. We often allow other non-commercial projects to ask for volunteers, but we don't want to be the place to look for voice-over employment gigs!

I'm not sure I understand this bit:

- Will the voice data be sold or sub-licensed to others?
We will not sell voice data to any other party in any kinds of format. There will be no commercial use of those data, either from our end or the user end.
- How long will the voice data be used?
We do not intend to keep any voice data once those data have been fed into our TTS model and the training is complete

Is the voice model never-ever to be sold, sub-licensed, or used for any commercial purpose? I don't see how it would be worthwhile to pay someone for their "voice data" if you're not going to use it afterwards. Are you saying this is strictly a research project?

[bennyhu]

Hi redrun,

Thanks for the prompt response !

Strictly non-commercial in the sense that their voice data will never, never be sold in any format. We will not keep any training data once the model gets trained. It is also impossible to reverse-engineer any training data that were fed into a TTS model.
We will integrate this text-to-speech model into a hardware product later on. And we intend to sell this consumer-end hardware product.

I believe that answers your question, but let me know if you have more comments.

Best,
Tony

[redrun]

I see, thank you for being so candid. I'm going to leave it at this for now, and wiser heads than mine will decide if this ought to stay on our forum. I think some of our readers might be interested, but there are also other places to recruit for gig-work voice-overs.

In any case, I wish you the best in your endeavors! I think Text-To-Speech is one of the most genuinely useful technologies to come out of any "AI" bubble, and I'm glad to see this latest one has more folks ready to improve on it.

[bennyhu]

Thanks for your generosity. I love open-source communities and similar environments (LibriVox) and I think Integrity goes a long way.
Just curious, any particular reason why you think TTS is genuinely useful? I have encountered plenty who are not a fan of it.

[Inkell]

Are you recruiting internationally or is it limited to a specific country or region?

[bennyhu]

Are you recruiting internationally or is it limited to a specific country or region?

It's international. As long as you are a native English speaker with no strong accent from a particular area/region, we do not really care your location.
Are you interested in this project?

[Inkell]

It's international. As long as you are a native English speaker with no strong accent from a particular area/region, we do not really care your location.
Are you interested in this project?

Yes I'm interested

[bennyhu]

It's international. As long as you are a native English speaker with no strong accent from a particular area/region, we do not really care your location.
Are you interested in this project?

Yes I'm interested

Awesome ! Would you mind sending an email to hutianxing ad alio-ai.com? I will send over the demo script. The demo script will be concise. We can go from there.

[Pigtools]

hello this sounds like something i would be interested in, how do I sign up?

[bennyhu]

hello this sounds like something i would be interested in, how do I sign up?

Hi there, thanks for your interest ! Please send an email to hutianxing ad alio-ai.com with a brief introduction, and ideally, a couple of voice demos (no need to be long in case you are concerned about me exploiting your voice). We will go from there !

[hackimoto]

Ok whatever it is I'll do it.

[bennyhu]

Ok whatever it is I'll do it.

Would you mind sending an email to the address listed above? With a few voice samples. Thanks.