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In the Zagar & Evans pop song classic In the Year 2525, the duo sang of a year where “some machine is doing that for you.” Voice-over actors, welcome to the future. A company called Sonantic has created what it claims is the first artificial intelligence voice models that sound genuinely human and capable of expressing “a wide range of complex human emotions, from fear and sadness to joy and surprise.” Gaming producers like Obsidian Entertainment, Splash Damage and 4A Games are  already on board with the technology, which is in use from development through post-production. The concept is similar to CGI for audio. Human, realistic voice tech is in its infancy, but along with this brave new frontier is a new opportunity for voiceover artists – banking their words for future use. Related Story Warner Bros International Enlists AI Specialist Cinelytic, Mostly For Distribution Data - CES Actors interested in creating voice models spend a few hours in the … [Read more...] about Sonantic Brings Artificial Intelligence To New Path For Voice-Overs

Getty Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a trailblazer -- so says the Hollywood Critics Association that labeled him as such -- but D.J. says the real trailblazer was his pops. Johnson accepted the HCA's Trailblazer Award Friday night via Zoom, of course, and he got pretty emotional. Dwayne says he felt super lucky to be in a position of privilege where he could make people feel good. He's done that in a big way, working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a long, long time. He was also honored for the donations he's made to frontline workers and first responders. The former wrestling champ dedicated the award to his dad, WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson, who passed away a year ago at age 75.  Dwayne called his dad a real trailblazer, and then went on to describe their relationship as "complicated" -- "Father and son, tough love, tough love." Dwayne says his dad did all he could do to make people go home feeling happy. Congrats on the award!!! … [Read more...] about Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Dedicates Trailblazer Award to Dad

In the latest socially distanced episode of our Useful Idiots podcast, hosts Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper are joined by Stella Moris, a lawyer and the life partner of Julian Assange . Matt and Katie discuss a recent Twitter thread by Dr. Sarah T. Roberts of UCLA, in which she laments the fall of journalistic integrity by reporters and writers moving to Substack. “I worry about this because it’s this whole idea that alternative media, which has already taken such a huge hit in the last 20 or 30 years… all the content is being driven to these big, centralized, largely national news organizations. And it’s consolidating more and more. And those news organizations are becoming more and more like each other all the time,” says Matt. Related Stories Joe Biden Inherited the Forever War. Will He Give it Away? Biden Prepares Major Changes to Immigrant Family Detention Centers Related Stories Chasteness, Soda Pop, and Show Tunes: The Lost Story of … [Read more...] about ‘Useful Idiots’: Julian Assange’s Partner Stella Moris on WikiLeaks, Concealing Their Pregnancy

©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection On the heels of Dr. Seuss being muzzled for racist depictions in a few books, another beloved childhood memory is also being called problematic ... one Pepe Le Pew. The Looney Tunes character fell into the crosshairs of NYT columnist Charles M. Blow -- who wrote an op-ed titled "Six Seuss Books Bore a Bias" ... where he argued racism is deeply embedded into American culture (especially pop culture) and fed to kids at a young age. Alamy/MGM Composite He brought up cartoons like Speedy Gonzales and Mammy Two Shoes -- the former being another LT character he says pushed racist stereotypes against Mexicans and the latter being a Tom & Jerry character portrayed as a heavyset Black maid who speaks with a caricaturized voice. You usually just see her legs/feet ... but her full figure was depicted too. Those two examples specifically address his race concern, but he threw in Pepe as well as another 'toon that … [Read more...] about Pepe Le Pew Called Out for Perpetuating Rape Culture in NYT Op-Ed