The Deep Gripping Reality

In this episode, I sit down with Ginger Jansen and discuss the role of personal ethics and values in business. We look at Stoicism and practicality while drilling into actionable tips any professional can use. It's about to get deep!

This is not a drill! The Bots are here, people. 

After a few recent experiments with BingAI and ChatGPT, I wanted to share some insights and predictions so I invited a friend on to discuss.

In this episode of The Deep Gripping Reality Podcast, special guest Ginger Jansen joins me to discuss the State of AI- where it is now, where it's likely headed, and what you need to know to thrive using it!

For decades, one name has dominated the search world. Google. Like Rocky Balboa in Rocky III, Google has successfully fended off bids of many would-be world champions with ease. However, much like Clubber Lang in the same movie, one company has slowly been building its core strengths. Biding their time until the perfect opportunity to strike presented itself. Who is this unlikely challenger? Microsoft's very own, Bing. Thanks to a recent $10 Billion super infusion into AI technology, Bing is poised to strike and pose a real challenge to Google's reign. Only one thing is certain, folks: it's about to get deep! 

The slogan of this show is "It's about to get deep!" and I end every episode with "...Until next time, dig deep my friends!". Have you ever wondered why? What exactly is a "Deep Gripping Reality"? You're about to change how you question the world around you. Slow down and buckle in, friends because this one really is about to get Deep.

What if I told you you could type a script, have a computer read it, and within seconds, have the perfect voiceover in any accent you want... for free?

Would it sound natural? Real? Could it pass the uncanny valley? Or perhaps would all just be a big waste of time.

In this episode of the TDGR Podcast, we let you be the judge. Stay Tuned, it's about to get deep!

With massive advancements in AI, text-to-speech technology has vastly improved in recent years. In some cases, to the point that voices produced by computers are virtually indistinguishable from humans. This technology is by no means perfect, but, as I said, it's pretty darn close.

So, what does this mean for content creators? As anyone who knows me, has read a past blog post or heard an episode of my podcast knows, I love to test new technologies before I recommend them or their applications to my clients. I'm very much a "practice what you preach" kind of guy.

With that in mind, I wanted to test the capabilities and practical applications of the technology by seeing if I could produce a full podcast episode using nothing more than text-to-speech technology. More importantly, I wanted to see if the episode would be something that people would actually listen to, or if the end product would sound like the podcast equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

There are many reasons that someone might want to utilize this kind of technology. Perhaps you're a great writer, but not a big fan of having your voice recorded. You know you need content, but are not sure how to go about creating it. Maybe you need voiceover work for an explainer or marketing video on YouTube.  Maybe you'd love to start a podcast, but don't have proper recording equipment and operate on a tight budget. I've often said that many blogs would make great podcast segments or even full episodes!

The practical applications for content creation and repurposing content really are endless.

I was able to create a true test of the effectiveness of the technology. I wanted to try different AI voices, inflections, accents, and more, and blend them seamlessly into one podcast segment for an episode. In fact, I wanted to make sure the entire episode, with the exception of my professional intro by Steve Zarro, was 100% created with text-to-speech.

All of this was done simply by using a free tool at voicegenerator.io. Now, please note that voicegenerator.io is not a sponsor of this episode or my blog.

That said, I was able to create an engaging podcast episode, rather quickly, simply by going to the website, typing out my script, and choosing from any one of 13 different English voices provided, and hitting play. Each time I hit play, the segment was temporarily saved into a small "playlist". I then used my phone to record the audio directly from my laptop's speakers.

Some of the text samples faired better than others, but overall, I have to say, I was impressed with the application- Especially for being a free tool.

For the second episode of the second season, we discuss the idea of entrepreneurship, what makes an entrepreneur, The American Dream, and more! Stay tuned, it's about to get deep!