NPR's Radio Host David Greene Says Google's NotebookLM Tool Stole His Voice
- Reference: 0180818792
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/02/17/227207/nprs-radio-host-david-greene-says-googles-notebooklm-tool-stole-his-voice
- Source link:
> David Greene had never heard of NotebookLM, Google's buzzy artificial intelligence tool that spins up podcasts on demand, until a former colleague emailed him to ask if he'd lent it his voice. "So... I'm probably the 148th person to ask this, but did you license your voice to Google?" the former co-worker asked in a fall 2024 email. "It sounds very much like you!"
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> Greene, a public radio veteran who has hosted NPR's "Morning Edition" and KCRW's political podcast "Left, Right & Center," looked up the tool, listening to the two virtual co-hosts -- one male and one female -- engage in light banter. "I was, like, completely freaked out," Greene said. "It's this eerie moment where you feel like you're listening to yourself." Greene felt the male voice sounded just like him -- from the cadence and intonation to the occasional "uhhs" and "likes" that Greene had worked over the years to minimize but never eliminated. He said he played it for his wife and her eyes popped.
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> As emails and texts rolled in from friends, family members and co-workers, asking if the AI podcast voice was his, Greene became convinced he'd been ripped off. Now he's suing Google, alleging that it [1]violated his rights by building a product that replicated his voice without payment or permission , giving users the power to make it say things Greene would never say. Google told The Washington Post in a statement on Thursday that NotebookLM's male podcast voice has nothing to do with Greene. Now a Santa Clara County, California, court may be asked to determine whether the resemblance is uncanny enough that ordinary people hearing the voice would assume it's his -- and if so, what to do about it.
Greene's lawsuit cites an unnamed AI forensic firm that used its software to compare the artificial voice to Greene's. It gave a confidence rating of 53-60% that Greene's voice was used to train the model, which it considers "relatively high" confidence.
"If I was David Greene I would be upset, not just because they stole my voice," but because they used it to make the podcasting equivalent of AI "slop," said Mike Pesca, host of "The Gist" podcast and a former colleague of Greene's at NPR. "They have banter, but it's very surface-level, un-insightful banter, and they're always saying, 'Yeah, that's so interesting.' It's really bad, because what do we as show hosts have except our taste in commentary and pointing our audience to that which is interesting?"
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/15/david-greene-google-ai-podcast/
Re: (Score:3)
I listened to the podcast, and it does sound like a complete rip-off of the guys voice, and tone.
The future (Score:2)
This is the dystopian AI future we're walking into. Endless generated versions of everything- copies of copies of copies and the original creators just buried under mountains of bullshit. And that's what they're aiming for.
The money is injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into this tech so that in a couple of years they can have skinjobs walking around with ripped off liknesses and bootlegged voices doing the things we used to do ourselves without paying us for it.
We've seen a lot of movies play our th
Re: (Score:2)
On the plus side it has recently cured me of ever clicking onto a YouTube short again. Almost 100% AI-slop at this point.
Entire AI landscape is built on other peoples work (Score:2)
Human: The entire AI landscape is built on other peoples work.
ClippyAI: While I don’t create knowledge autonomously, I do facilitate new forms of discovery through computational inference. Federal courts have ruled that voices themselves aren't protected by copyright (only specific recordings) and AI-generated mimics don't infringe if they don't directly copy originals.
Re:NPR (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of NPR stories are not about politics, and the ones that are political give direct quotes, give correct historic context, and retract information if they are incorrect. More than I can say for the MAGA propaganda "news" sources.
Re:NPR (Score:5, Informative)
NPR is like BBC radio. Government funded radio programming without government control. Some good stuff, some bad. Underpaid staff making do with old equipment because they believe that doing the work is more important than fame and wealth.
Re: (Score:2)
The government doesn't need to directly control NPR when the network self-selects for sycophancy to the All-Glorious State.
Re: (Score:2)
Backup for my other statement.
[1]https://washingtonstand.com/ne... [washingtonstand.com]
And of course they fired him for revealing a fact that does not support the narrative.
[2]https://current.org/2024/04/np... [current.org]
Of course NPR had no intention of allowing him to publish an article critical of NPR anywhere.
[1] https://washingtonstand.com/news/npr-has-zero-republicans-87-democrats-on-editorial-staff-says-senior-editor-
[2] https://current.org/2024/04/npr-suspends-uri-berliner-for-five-days/?wallit_nosession=1
Re: NPR (Score:3)
In a long line of inanities and stupidities uttered by "Valgrus Thunderaxe," this one may take the cake.
Of course it's probably stupid to expect better from someone who is still using his D&D handle from when he was 12 years old despite rapidly approaching retirement age.
Re: NPR (Score:4, Interesting)
I assumed it was just a Viking-esque Nordic name because certain people who are really proud of being white are weeabos for viking stuff.
I won't criticize anyone just for using a username that's silly or juvenile...
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's not like that. I used a name generator and asked for a Dwarf name and this is what I got.
Re:NPR (Score:4, Interesting)
If that were true then NPR would always praise dear leader.
Re: (Score:1)
If you're not from Slashdot and you're unfamiliar with Valgrus Thunderaxe, he's something like a troll.
And that thing he is, is also a troll.