Meet "Reid-ish": The Story of Cloning Reid Hoffman's Voice

This episode explores the creation and implications of a synthetic version of Reid Hoffman's voice, developed using advanced artificial intelligence.

1. Voice cloning technology can significantly reduce the time and effort required for producing high-quality audio content.
2. The technology, while promising, raises important ethical and authenticity concerns that need to be addressed.
3. Synthetic voices can potentially extend an individual's presence in multiple languages and formats without their direct involvement.
4. Proper disclosure and transparency are essential when using synthetic voices to maintain trust and integrity.
5. The episode emphasizes the need for thoughtful integration of AI tools in creative and business processes.

1: Introduction

Overview of the episode's theme and introduction to the voice cloning technology. Reid Hoffman: "It's definitely a super exciting time to be in this space."

2: The Technology Explained

Deep dive into how the voice cloning technology works and its potential uses. Jeff Berman: "An AI voice clone allows us to fulfill our mission of getting more business lessons out in the world."

3: Ethical Considerations

Discussion on the ethical implications of using synthetic voices and the importance of transparency. Reid Hoffman: "If you are using a digital twin of your image or voice, it should be signaled in some way."

4: Practical Applications

Examples of how the synthetic voice has been used in real scenarios and the benefits realized. Jeff Berman: "That's our masters of scale. Executive producer Eve Tro."

5: Conclusion

Reflections on the future of synthetic voices and AI in media production. Reid Hoffman: "I am not going to spend the time to learn languages, but synthetic voices allow me to reach a broader audience."

1. Explore AI tools that can enhance productivity in your field.
2. Ensure transparency when integrating AI into public-facing content.
3. Consider ethical implications and establish guidelines for AI usage.
4. Use synthetic voice technology to extend your reach without compromising on quality.
5. Stay informed about the latest developments in AI to leverage new technologies responsibly.

Masters of Scale goes under the hood of powerful AI in audio, unveiling a full vocal clone for founding host Reid Hoffman. Our CEO Jeff Berman, the Masters of Scale staff, and Reid himself tell the story of creating a synthetic voice we call “Reid-ish.” The company Respeecher is behind the technology, and its CEO Alex Serdiuk walks us through the speech replication process. Through “Reid-ish” we grapple with authenticity, disclosure, labor, and evolving norms around AI in media. Reid ponders what’s possible for greater sharing and learning through this audio technology, as well as what listeners should know about its use.
For more on our team’s principles and practices, go to mastersofscale.com/pledge for our proposed Listener’s Bill of Rights in the Age of AI.

People

Reid Hoffman, Jeff Berman, Eve Tro

Companies

LinkedIn, Respeecher

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Bob Safian
Hi, it's Bob Safian. You've been hearing me as the host of rapid response in this feed for a few years now with short, newsy interviews alongside the deeper dives of Masters of Scale. Well, I'm excited to share that rapid response is expanding into its own feed. We'll be putting out shows twice a week, focusing on the urgent issues that business leaders are dealing with in real time. So search for rapid response in your podcast player and subscribe to make sure you get all our episodes.

I'll see you on the other side. How is AI shaping human stuff? Work, relationships, culture, art? Will all of this look drastically different in the next ten years? Some predictions are just hype, but not all of them.

Bilal Sudhou
My name is Bilal Sudhou, and I'm here to cut through the noise and clear AI up for you in my new podcast from the TED audio collective, the Ted AI show. Join me in interviewing the world's leading experts, artists, and journalists for a firsthand look and new perspective on the fast moving world of AI. Listen anywhere you get your podcasts. Let me test the zoom levels. Testing, one, two, three.

Reid Hoffman
Okay, those seem to be all right. That's your founding host of Masters of scale, Reid Hoffman. He's at his home office with a laptop open and a microphone set up. Two producers are standing by in their zoom squares. Let me get the coffee and the water, actually, I guess coffee, not always great on the voice.

Anyway, I'll still have a little bit of it. He settles into his chair and gets ready to record some voiceover for the show. Just making sure it works. Ta da. Here we go.

And then get this out of the way. Quick time. Do do do, and two little pickups. Reid turns to the script and starts recording. Often it smooths sailing, but sometimes.

That's Jesse Berry, an ornithologist at the corn oil. That's Jesse Berry, an ornithologist at the Cornell lab. Let me just make sure. Oh, yeah. Okay.

That's Jesse Berry, an ornithologist at the Cornail Cornell lab.

Jeff Berman
Reid is an investor, an entrepreneur, a philosopher, a patriot, and a great friend. But he'd be the first to say he is not a voiceover artist.

Reid Hoffman
Over time, over time, the definition expanded to refer to anyone, real or imaginary, who serves as an over time, over. Time, the definition, recording voiceover can be time and labor intensive, even for the pros at masters of scale. We might update scripts at any time as stories develop. So when Reid travels, which you can imagine is quite often, he takes a microphone with him and he needs a super quiet space wherever he is. Good voice over work also means getting into the right mindset.

Jeff Berman
When you hit record, you have to match the tone of the story at hand, no matter what's going on in your life, not to mention everyday hazards, like a frog in your throat, a dog barking outside, or suffering from a cold that has you sniffling between sentences. But imagine you could ensure a result like this every no stumbles, no x factors. Over time, the definition expanded to refer to anyone, real or imaginary, who serves as a source of inspirational fuel for. The creative process that is an AI version of Reid Hoffman's voice. About a year ago, Reid dove into fully cloning his voice through a process powered by artificial intelligence.

Like a lot of AI technologies, it has improved dramatically in a remarkably short amount of time. It's basically indistinguishable from human reed sitting in real time at the microphone. I'm Reid Hoffman, co founder of LinkedIn, partner at Grelock, and your host. So we want to tell you the story of this technology to take you under the hood to better understand it. You'll hear from Reid, from me, from our production staff, and from the voice cloning company we're working with called Respeacher.

Voice cloning is a tool that offers scaling potential for so many things, including this very show. It's also a tool with major implications we must grapple with, not just in audio, but far beyond.

Reid Hoffman
Well, we can talk about AI. We can talk about when most people. Think about AI, they think about killer robots. Things are changing every couple of months. AI is at an infection point.

It is a switch. It's like we have power tools now, and we'll just keep figuring it out. It helps unlock a whole different approach. Generative AI is the most excited I've been about anything in software since the Internet. It's definitely a super exciting time to.

Eve Tro
Be in this space. All of these things are possible. Let's try to figure out whether this is actually useful or not. The tech just shouldn't replace human beings. Is it the worst thing in the world, or is it the greatest thing in the world?

Reid Hoffman
This is masters of scale.

We'll start the show in a moment, after a word from our premier brand partner, Capital one business.

Aparna Saran
I woke up in the middle of the night because I had this nightmare that we were front page news that we've done the stupidest mistake of our life by making this pivot. That's Aparna Saran, chief marketing officer for Capital one business, and she's recalling a moment from her previous position at Capital one when she was heading up a team designing a new business card. We had just made the decision to go all in and sunset the prior version of the product, which was honestly the cash cow for our business when we made that decision within a senior leadership meeting. As someone who had been on the journey to build this out for five plus years, it was really exciting. But by the time the weekend hit, I started to feel the responsibility and the pressure.

We are taking this big bet on something that I've built. Perhaps you've been there, youve made a pivotal decision. And then panic sets in. How would Aparna calm her butterflies and steer her team through this pivot? Well find out later in the show.

Its all part of the Refocus Playbook, a special series where Capital one business highlights stories of business owners and leaders using one of reeds theories of entrepreneurship. Todays Playbook Insight have multiple plan Bs?

Jeff Berman
I'm Jeff Berman, your host. One of the goals here at Masters of Scale has always been to democratize lessons in entrepreneurship rooted in the experience of LinkedIn co founder and legendary investor Reid Hoffman. We do in depth interviews with business leaders. The scheduling of and preparation for those interviews can take months. After the interview comes an intensive process of editing, writing, sound design, and recording scripts of voiceover to connect the dots of the episode.

The voiceover step can be tough for a lot of reasons, but now we have a full clone of Reed's voice and we're exploring how to use it on masters of scale. This is a synthetic voice trained on the sound and cadence of Reed speaking. Hi listeners. If you're interested in experimenting with AI like we are, then I want to invite you and your team to join us this week on February 20. But it doesn't generate original content.

As an early adopter of new technology, Reed not only cloned his voice, he also made a generative video version of himself called Reed AI. Hello everyone. I'm thrilled to be here today. I'm an AI generated version of Reed Hoffman, his digital twin. My thinking and everything I am saying comes from a custom GPT that is based on 20 years of Reed talking and making content.

Reed appears on a split screen going back and forth on camera with an expressive, vivid digital twin. So first im going to challenge read AI with some questions to see what it can do. Lets take a real piece of work for me. Blitzscaling I wrote a 336 page book and how do you explain it in one sentence to a five year old? For a five year old, blitzscaling is like building the biggest tower super fast before anyone else, even if it gets a bit messy.

Reid Hoffman
So you can be the leader of the tower game. As a listener, you might already be trying to figure out in your head which Reed is. Which is what you're hearing one of several synthetic versions, or is it Reid live and in person? Well, I sat down with Reid human Reed to talk more about why he's exploring all of this so ambitiously. Ready when you are.

Jeff Berman
Hi, Reed. Hi, Jeff. We are getting together after you released kind of a mind blowing video of you interviewing an AI version of yourself and that AI version of yourself interviewing you. I'm curious how the idea for that came about. So, the idea was, obviously, most of the time that people have been talking about digital twins.

Reid Hoffman
Most of that discussion has been in the fear and, oh, my God, it's gonna be the end of Hollywood and all this disaster and storm is coming. So the idea was to start exploring what some of the positive use cases are. Sharing the journey, sharing the learning, sharing the exploration, with an emphasis on what can be possible and what can be positive. But, of course, navigating concerns and experiences as well. For as long as you've been hosting masters of scale.

Jeff Berman
I know it's been a labor of love, but there's a labor part of it. And so could you talk a little bit about what we're experimenting with synthetic read AI voice. Look, if I can figure out how to have tools make it a lot more efficient for me in terms of how I doing work and all the rest, that's a good thing. I use a phone for that. I use computers for that.

Reid Hoffman
If you say, well, look, why am I using this? Because I can address a set of commentary that I otherwise I don't have time for, or I can show some lens into the future, which is helpful to our audience, or I can go into more depth and produce more content that hopefully some number of people will really like, that I wouldn't have otherwise have time to do. Because, by the way, I sometimes have somebody who writes a speech for me, and I give the speech, and, no, I don't go, and by the way, sentence x was from Susan and sentence y was from Bob. You know, I go, okay, I'm giving the speech, and I've worked with a team to hopefully get it right. But, like, you don't have to go.

Susan generated line three, and Bob generated line seven, or GBD generated line ten. So when you think about taking a synthetic AI voice and being able to approve a script and then have it read and have it be indistinguishable for the audience. That feels like a tremendous use case here. 1000%. The general principle is if what you're doing is legitimately trying to do more or valuable things for other people, then I think you will be broadly on the right path.

Jeff Berman
An AI voice clone allows Reed and masters of scale to fulfill our mission of getting more business lessons and storytelling out in the world. It does have trade offs, and we'll get to those, but there's also value. Including, for our producers, delivering successful voiceover is such a remarkable talent and skill. That's our masters of scale. Executive producer Eve Tro.

Eve Tro
But there's also just the statistical probability that someone who has brilliant things to say and important lessons to share will be good at that specific skill of reading text from a page and deliberating in the voice. It's very low, and it can take an hour to deliver a couple paragraphs. Oof. It's hard work. Also, there's the matter of vocal quality.

Jeff Berman
Here's producer Alex Morris. I'm thinking about specific times where Reed has had a cold, and we've said maybe we should pause recording, because even though this is naturally, organically reed right now speaking, it doesn't sound like the Reed massive, scale read voice that we know. Then there are the last minute pickups. We're talking about accurate information here. Whether it's a lesson on business or to get the pronunciation of someone's name, you may have to, and I have had to wake up a host at a very odd hour, call someone, text them at two in the morning so that they can say three words, so that the story going out can be accurate.

Eve Tro
And is that the best use of everyone's time and energy? To me, if there were a magic bullet that could change just those three words so that they could be correct in the host voice, I think that would be a good use of that magic bullet. Well, that magic bullet seems to be here, and it's courtesy of a company based in Ukraine called respeacher. They're the ones who cloned Reid's voice, and they do not underestimate the impact of their work. The basic limitation of a human being in front of microphone is now removed.

Jeff Berman
That's Alex Sir Duke, founder of Respeecher, and their CEO. The idea for respeecher started at an IT hackathon in Kiev. Most participants were focused on visual recognition, but Alex and his co founder had. A different goal, to create a very simple model that would let one person speak in the voice of another person. They won the hackathon, and a few years later, their model grew into re speecher, a company that creates synthetic versions of actual human voices.

A lot of their projects involve tv and movies, remarkably often bringing dead voices back to life. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's here as an honor to be here with y'all on America's got time. We were on America got Talent in the voice of Elvis Presley.

Reid Hoffman
I have to tell you, we're gonna do a couple of our biggest records for you. Were at Super bowl in 2021 in the voice of Vince Lombardi because it's. Not whether we get knocked down, but whether we get back up.

Jeff Berman
Even actor Jimmy Stewart, whose voice has been revived for a bedtime story on the meditation app.com. Well, hello, I'm James Stewart, but, well. You can call me Jimmy. Tonight, I'm going to tell you a story. Respeacher works closely with companies that own these brands and intellectual property, and there are applications beyond entertainment.

Respeecher helps individuals with medical complications. We can change quality of lives of people who have speech disorders. Back in 2022, we tried our first rough real time models on patients with. Laryngectomy and those whod be in danger if their real voices were heard. You often need to anonymize victims of a crime for a documentary or whistleblowers.

Alex Serdiuk
Usually its being done with voice morphers, which make it sound bad, like really bad. Its really hard to understand the sound and emotions. From his home in Kiev, Ukraine, Alex can imagine re speecher helping victims of war crimes tell their stories more safely. And hes proud of his companys ethics. He said theyve had no reported cases of misuse and they do not take clients for political ads.

Jeff Berman
Last year, Reed hired the team at respeacher to create a synthetic voice for himself. There are hundreds of hours of reed hosting masters of scale, so data was not a problem. But re speecher doesnt turn text into speech. Thats the technology behind vocal assistants that might sound more robotic, like Alexa. In Siri, respeacher uses human voiceover artists who delivered the lines.

Alex Serdiuk
We understood that look, lets take from humans what they do best. Humans are amazing in performing because we were born with this vocal apparatus and use it on a daily basis. Voice over artists perform with emotion, unique pauses, and other quirks in their voices. Then that audio file gets a filter powered by the AI model to sound like the actual person you want to replicate. Here's an early draft of Reid's synthetic.

Reid Hoffman
Voice for Isaac Newton. It was an apple falling from a tree that supposedly led in to formulate the law of universal gravity. A little stuffy, right? A bit off. Heres a further iteration from Reespeacher.

For Benjamin Franklin, it was a key on a kite string struck by lightning in a thunderstorm that proved electricity could. Be transferred and stored deeper, more casual, more like Reed. The original use case for this was to make an audiobook, specifically Reid's 2023 work called Impromptu amplifying humanity through AI. So using an AI voice to record a book about AI makes sense, right? Listeners got the voice of Reed without the dozens of hours it would have taken him to record.

Jeff Berman
Reading it. Here's a sample of how it turned out. My query to GPT four was not the first time I'd asked an LLM to create a light bulb joke for me earlier. GPTs can freeze up like an amateur at an open mic night. How many restaurant inspectors does it take to change a light bulb?

Reid Hoffman
GPT-3 only one. But the light bulb has to want to change. That robot should keep its day job. But the technology has come even further since then. When we did the book, we used models we most probably don't use anymore.

Alex Serdiuk
It's when we have to listen to a sound we created a couple of years ago. We really feel bad. We want to remake the voice. And that's the case when we could reach out to a production company and just say, can we please do it again? Just replace the vocal track.

We would do it for free. We just want it to be better on the current level of quality.

Jeff Berman
Coming up, the masters of scale team does a test drive with the latest version of Re Speacher. And so, how british do you want me? More than normal. And we ponder the vast implications. That's after the break.

Reid Hoffman
We'll be back in a moment after a word from our premier brand partner, Capital one business.

Aparna Saran
There was panic that set in that night because I didn't want to let people down. We're back with Aparna Saran of Capital one business. She was recalling the time she woke up in a cold sweat, terrified that the new product she had been working on might fail. So the next morning, she sat down and wrote an email. It was Sunday morning, and I said, you know what?

I'm going to just like share this with my peers. It was very emotional. It was like sort of a cry for help. Aparna realized that if the new product didn't take off, she needed a plan b, preferably multiple plan B's. I'm inviting them to be the thought partners so that we are mitigating as much risk as possible and we have contingency plans in place as we'd make this move, you'd write something like this and your heart is pounding.

Should I send this? It was a super vulnerable moment for me, but then I was like, I'm going to just send this. Like, what's the worst that'll happen? It can't be worse than being on the front page of the newspaper. So she held her breath and hit send.

What happened next would surprise even her. Well hear about that later in the show. Its all part of Capital one businesss spotlight on business leaders following Reeds refocused playbook.

Jeff Berman
Ok, before we get even deeper into the world of Reeds vocal clone, it only seems fair to give it a name. Reid, you've referenced your digital twin. Is that how we should think about an AI generated reed voice or would you want us to think about it differently? Digital twin is okay. It wasn't really the language I generated that was the team doing it.

Reid Hoffman
It's kind of a little bit of an industry parlance that I think is a little strange. It is good to have something that is both Reed but also read ish because there's English. You know, read ish. Ish is kind of a suffix people say, you know, do you think that this is a complete catastrophe? It's like, well, ish.

Jeff Berman
Love it. Read ish. It is. Now to better ponder what we're truly getting into. Producers Yves tro, Juliet Luini, and Alex Morse logged into our respeecher account and got to work.

Eve Tro
Okay, I am rolling again. So we're making these recordings and then we're going to feed them into reed speecher. Okay, I'm sorry. It's kind of nerve wracking. I know.

Jeff Berman
I'm like sweating like Reed probably does in his recording sessions. Alex, are you ready to play Reed Hoffman? I'm ready. Our producers tried out what is somewhat awkwardly called the speech to speech process. Hearing how realistic reed ish sounds filtered through each of their voices.

Eve Tro
I'm Reid Hoffman is a strange thing to say because I am not Reid Hoffman, but this is the technology we're thinking of using, so I'm going to go for it. I'm Reid Hoffman, co founder of LinkedIn. Partner at Greylock, and your host. And I believe. And I believe and I believe.

Reid Hoffman
We'Ve. Uploaded our audio files, all three samples. Now tell me where we're at. Now. It is converting our original audio file into Reid Hoffman and it'll take like, five minutes, hopefully.

That's, like, kind of surprising to me. Like five minutes. I genuinely thought it was going to be something where it's like 24 hours, and then they send you some sort of a file. I am shocked. Like, that's pretty close to real time.

Eve Tro
Yeah. It's about the amount of time you would need to upload a big audio file and convert it to any other format.

Jeff Berman
It's ready. Do you want to just play it? Let's do it. I'm so excited to hear how it picks up Alex's accent. I'm Reid Hoffman, co founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host.

Reid Hoffman
And I believe you need to amplify the unique stories of your community and your customers. Doing so will build a foundation of trust, loyalty, and enduring impact.

Wow. Okay. I. My first thought is that hearing Reid's voice, but with my specific accent, it sounded to me like he was like a London gangster. It was like a guy Ritchie film.

I was like. He was like one of the Cray twins. I'm honestly so impressed at how I'm literally like, that was Reid Hoffman with a british accent. If he was making fun of me, he would do that. Obviously, for an American to do a british accent is a very safe voice that you can do.

Right. In terms of cultural appropriation, we're gonna have to start having conversations about, where's the line? What can you do? And, I don't know, like, what feels insensitive. Yeah, that's a good point.

Eve Tro
It brings up these issues of authenticity. You can pretend to be another nationality, another gender that you are not, and it's so easy. As a media producer, I'm just immediately so excited about the technology that I need someone to prompt the discussion of the dangers of it. Like that. Like that question of authenticity and identity.

Then I think, oh, right, yes, that's right. This could be used for other things that are not so great, but because we're so focused on what we're aiming to use it for, I think it just makes me pretty giddy. Okay, let's hear yours. I'm Reid Hoffman. Co founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host.

Reid Hoffman
And I believe you need to amplify the unique voices of your community and your customers. Doing so will build a foundation of trust, loyalty, and enduring impact.

Jeff Berman
Okay, we are all holding back. Explosive laughter right now, that was unpleasant to listen to. I wouldn't say it was unpleasant to listen to. It just didn't sound. Didn't sound like Reed, but he was.

Reid Hoffman
Like, okay, well, here here I go. I guess I know. No pressure. Okay. I'm rude.

It is rude to say, but it. Also did sound like my voice had an undertone of fear in it, which I don't know if that comes across day to day, but for some reason. Now you're rethinking everything you're thinking, do I sound like a fearful woodland creature in my everyday conversation? No, I don't think you do. Yeah.

I mean, that's was nuts, is. I think I thought this was going to feel like we're doing an impression of Reid Hoffman, but it actually felt like Reed was doing a mean impression of us. Yeah, it's so accurate. Should we hear the other one? I'm Reid Hoffman.

Co founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host. And I believe you need to amplify the unique stories of your community and your customers. Doing so will build a foundation of trust, loyalty, and enduring impact. Wow. I can tell that it's me because I know how I say things and also my cadence, but I don't know.

Eve Tro
What'd you guys think? I want to play with the pitch and see if I can move the pitch down because I think you, Eve, did a very good Reed Hoffman, actually. So I clicked a plugin and it says, regeneration settings pitch shift, and it has a scale from negative twelve all the way to positive twelve. And we can play around with this scale to change the pitch. If we did, like, a negative six, I feel like it would be really good.

Reid Hoffman
I feel like that's gonna sound, like, spot on, actually, so maybe we should try that now. Yeah, let's do it. I'm Reid Hoffman, co founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host. And I believe you need to amplify the unique stories of your community and your customers. Doing so will build a foundation of trust, loyalty, and enduring impact.

Jeff Berman
That's good. That was really good. I feel like you get the sort of downward ending of sentences like Reid does, and that's where it really sounded like him. That, to me, was pretty spot on. I think that's the best one so far, for sure.

Reid Hoffman
Picture a vast library with sections for every genre you can imagine. You can find escapism in the romance and Sci-Fi sections, points of reflection and memoir and poetry. I, to be quite honest, still don't know how I feel about it. I think we were in a really interesting position because, you know, we're working with one of the pioneers of AI technology. It means we're encouraged more than, I think, most places to kind of experiment with it.

Even when you're experimenting, I think it still feels like that there's stakes there, and we wanted to make sure that we were always fully conscious of what we were doing and what we were creating. One of the ways that we're putting guardrails on the use of the technology is that the script is still written by writers, researched by researchers, vetted by Reed, and signed off on editorially. And we're really putting a lot of importance on that and feeling that that's a big part of the integrity that gives us license to use re speecher, because we are really thinking of it as a technical production tool rather than displacing any intellectual or creative labor. I think that's a great point, and I think that is a really important line to draw. Staff writer Dan Nealon chimes in on.

That front, because generative AI, AI that is creating content, gets a lot of the headlines. When people hear AI, that's immediately what they think of. They think of a model that is producing written word or audio or video, whatever it is, underlining that. The AI we are using is purely a production tool, and the intellectual content of the show is remaining the same and is remaining directly tied to read. Really making sure the audience understands that is a huge thing for me in particular, as a creative and as a writer, I want people to know we're not handing over the keys to the car.

We're just like, I can't extend this metaphor anymore. Changing the paint job. Associate producer Masha Makotinina was also concerned about ethics. Even in the english language, there is a phrase, you've got my word. Maybe it was read, maybe it was approved by you, but not technically said by you, and suddenly, like, it's a Pandora box.

I
But my relationship with this technology also was affected when I heard the way Reed talks about it. And when I hear the case that Reed makes for the use of his voice, the person whose voice we are using, being so enthusiastic about it, I think it's the main puzzle piece that is important for this case. Reid's been releasing digital twins of himself into the world one by one, whether it's our reed ish voice from respeacher or the full generative video presence he calls reed AI from eleven labs and hour one. The value is you can do a bunch of things where I can have superpowers that I don't. For example, I would love to speak more languages.

Reid Hoffman
I am not going to spend the time in order to do it, but the ability to say, hey, I've got content that might be interesting or useful, like about entrepreneurship and a number of different languages, to be able to make that more humanized into what is read. Like when he speaks Chinese or French or Italian or Spanish or German, you know, all of those things are, I think, good things, as opposed to the, hey, I can care less and pay less attention. It's so that I can actually accomplish more in ways that matter for people. That's, I think, the general use of everything from read AI down to synthetic voices.

Jeff Berman
Even for the positive use cases, the deployment of a synthetic voice clone raises important questions around disclosure, whether and when people should know they're hearing AI generated audio. This entire behind the scenes episode exists because we are committed to transparency, but those standards are hardly codified in our industry. One of the big questions that we are wrestling with, I know you're wrestling with, and hopefully everyone in this industry is wrestling with, is, what do the listeners have a right to know? When you think about a listener's bill of rights, what do you think is. In that one principle is truth telling antideception.

Reid Hoffman
If you are using a digital twin of your image or voice, it should be signaled in some way. It doesn't necessarily have to be, like, glaring red lights in the background. Right. But, like, clearly not hidden. I don't think it has to be, like, an exact accounting.

These three sentences were non digital reed, and these three sentences were reed himself. And it's like, no, no, no. You can choose how deeply you go. It's just kind of more of a, okay, you're being forthright with me about how you're producing. Is that sort of an equivalent to almost.

Jeff Berman
The names have been changed to protect the innocent disclaimer at the top of a film, or something like that. Is that how you think about that? Yeah, exactly. Or this is based on real events, but has been fictionalized. It's like, okay, great.

Reid Hoffman
You're making sure that I don't go, it is all real, right? Or it is all fiction. You'd have to sort it out. If it matters to you, you're gonna have to look into it some. It's a question of, do you stand by it?

Movies don't go. And there were computer graphics in this film. It's like, we all know there's computer graphics. They don't actually say this film or that film, or it's a natural part of the production process. If something is generated, says Reid, says X, and Reed never looked at it, then it's like, well, we can't stand and say Reed said x, right?

Like we say, Reed says X. All the kinds of time we've done it at masters of scale for every single episode which has been written by a writer. Just to be clear, there's not new ground for us. Look, do I own it in that way? And is that authentic offering to people and that really, really matters?

Are we legitimately and with high integrity trying to be really, really good to our community and our listeners? If one thing is clear, we are not underthinking this. We have this groundbreaking technology ready to go. We have sign off, even enthusiasm from the source. We are going to use it and we are going to disclose it.

Jeff Berman
Whether thats in the episode audio, the show notes, or some embedded metadata option that comes along. We dont yet know that conversation is just starting. We hope you'll stay tuned. I'm Jeff Berman. Thank you for listening.

Reid Hoffman
This is redisch signing off, or is it? No, it is. I've come a really long way.

And now a final word from our brand partner, Capital one business.

Aparna Saran
Throughout the day, text messages and emails kept pouring in. Whatever you need, just let us know. We're back one more time with Aparna Saran of Capital one business. She was telling us about a Sunday morning email she fired off in a moment of panic. Minutes later, her inbox was overflowing.

And the support she found wasn't just emotional, it was practical. We talked about detailed contingency plans and we created our go to market strategy. Before we are in full rollout mode, we had stage gates so that we could test and quickly learn and iterate. And within a matter of six months, as we were rolling things out channel by channel, those stage gates would allow us to pivot if we saw something that we didn't like. That day, Aparna learned a lesson that stayed with her having multiple plan B's doesn't just expand your options, it gives you new opportunities.

Aparna Saran
The best way to pivot is actually open doors for thoughtful conversations because humility in knowing that you actually don't know everything, as well as the empathy in knowing that disruption is always drastic and abrupt, helps you go through that pivot with other people in a very different way. Capital one business is proud to support entrepreneurs and leaders working to scale their impact from Fortune five hundred s to first time business owners. For more resources to help drive your business forward, visit Capitalone.com businesshub. That's Capitalone.com businesshub.

Reid Hoffman
Masters of Scale is await Watt Original our executive producer is Eve Tro. The production team includes Tucker Ligursky Masha Mokitunina, and Brandon Klein. Special thanks to Juliet Luini, who produced this episode. Mixing and mastering by Aaron Bostinelli and Brian Pugh. Original music by Ryan Holiday.

Our head of podcasts is Litol Milad. Visit mastersofscale.com to find the transcript for this episode, and to subscribe to our newsletter and to read our team's proposed standards for AI and audio. It's Mastersofscale.com. pledge.