A friend of mine showed me the latest iteration of a Speechelo-ish type of TTS software. Impressive stuff, all things considered. She asked me whether as a voice actor I’m bothered by how realistically these programs are able to mimic human speech.

I can certainly see the appeal of such software for projects on a tight budget. I’m also eternally grateful to the group of select clients who continue to trust my services, and who recognise the competitive edge and implicit value an engaging, real human voice lends to their brand’s message.

Back in 2010, some of my classmates in Applied Linguistics had similar concerns regarding CAT tools. “Yeah, man… I mean, like, what’s the point of this degree, you know? Pretty soon robots will be doing all the translating for us anyway.”

Fast forward 12 years…

Keep doing your thing.

Until TTS can make a forest troll sound a tad more sweaty when given direction to do so, we’ll be alright.

That’s it.

That’s the rant.