July 2023

The Role of AI in Voice Cloning for Text-to-Podcast Services

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made significant strides in the field of voice cloning, revolutionizing text-to-podcast services as well as advertising content. This cutting-edge technology allows for the creation of synthetic voices that closely mimic human speech, offering podcast creators and content producers an array of benefits. This article explores how AI is being utilized to clone voices for text-to-podcast services, highlighting the advancements and implications of this transformative technology.

Voice cloning involves the creation of artificial voices that replicate the speech patterns, tone, and nuances of a specific individual. Traditionally, this process was time-consuming and required extensive recording sessions and meticulous editing. However, with the advent of AI, voice cloning has become more efficient and realistic.

AI algorithms, particularly those based on deep learning and neural networks, play a pivotal role in voice cloning. These algorithms analyze vast amounts of training data, including recordings and corresponding transcriptions of the target voice. Through the use of neural networks, AI models learn the intricacies of the voice and generate synthetic speech that closely resembles the original speaker.

One of the significant advantages of AI-driven voice cloning for text-to-podcast services is the ability to personalize the content. Podcast creators can now use their own voices for narration, adding a human touch and enhancing authenticity. This personalization strengthens the connection between the host and the audience, resulting in a more engaging listening experience.

Voice cloning technology also promotes accessibility and inclusivity in the podcasting sphere. Individuals with speech impairments or vocal limitations can utilize voice cloning to express themselves and participate in audio content creation. This breakthrough opens up opportunities for diverse voices and perspectives to be heard, contributing to a more inclusive podcasting landscape.

AI-powered voice cloning significantly reduces the time and resources required for podcast production. Traditionally, creating a podcast involved coordinating multiple individuals, such as voice actors, sound engineers, and editors. With voice cloning, podcast creators can streamline the process by eliminating the need for extensive recording sessions and post-production editing. This efficiency allows for faster turnaround times and increased productivity.

AI-driven voice cloning transcends language barriers and enables the localization of podcasts for a global audience. By offering voice cloning in multiple languages, podcast creators can cater to diverse listeners around the world. This feature is particularly valuable for businesses, educational institutions, and content producers aiming to expand their reach and engage with international audiences.

The emergence of voice cloning technology also raises ethical considerations. Privacy concerns and the potential misuse of synthetic voices are important issues to address. It is essential to ensure the responsible use of voice cloning technology and obtain appropriate consent when using cloned voices. Transparent communication about the implementation of voice cloning can help maintain ethical standards and protect individuals' rights.

AI-driven voice cloning has brought a paradigm shift to the world of text-to-speech and podcast-like services. With Voice.ai leading the way, as well as other companies like SoundHound AI, Inc. (SOUN), content creators and podcasters now have access to a powerful tool that enables them to clone their voices with remarkable accuracy and efficiency. The platform's user-friendly interface, enhanced personalization, and streamlined process contribute to a more engaging and accessible podcasting experience. While voice cloning technology presents ethical challenges, responsible use, and clear communication can mitigate potential risks. As AI continues to advance, we can expect further refinements in voice cloning technology, opening up new possibilities for content creation and human-machine interactions.

Midjourney prompt: “AI clone at a microphone doing a podcast”

SoundHound AI
Source: Yahoo Finance

July 7, 2023

Jacque's Post

(HAWAII LUNCHEON REPORT)

July 7, 2023

Hello everyone,

Throughout the week I was there, the weather was awful. Wind, rain, and mostly overcast skies. However, the change of scenery and pace was very welcome.

John’s lunch was on Friday.

Seven of us were there including John. Topics of discussion were varied, and they included:

Ukraine and Russian conflict
Alternative energy and its effect on the economy
Covid and its effect on the economy

Ukraine and Russian conflict

John believes the conflict will be hard fought, but Ukraine will eventually triumph. Sanctions have eaten into Russia’s economy, but Russian people are used to doing it tough and they believe that Putin is doing the right thing. However, many young people have left the county for fear of being drafted into a war where soldiers are used as cannon fodder. It seems most are completely untrained. Russia is already looking to North Korea and Syria for assistance in providing weaponry, etc. The U.S.is supplying tanks, missiles, etc as is Germany and several other countries. Factories in the U.S. are working overtime to keep up the production of armaments.

Alternative energy and its effect on the economy

Solar is going to be the future. It will be cost-efficient and readily available. It will be an added benefit for businesses as it will reduce costs. It will open the possibility of developing solar energy businesses in remote geographical locations. It’s all about acquiring land and thinking about what’s possible 10 years from now.

Covid and its effect on the economy

This pandemic stopped businesses paying slave labour wages, particularly in hospitality. Nobody is going to work again for those wages, so many restaurants won’t open for lunch again, because they just cannot get the staff.

In hotels, there are no China cups anymore, only paper cups. There is no room service. You wear a bracelet on your arm to enter your room. Many services have been discontinued.

Many airline staff have never returned to their job since the pandemic. Or they have returned briefly only to put up with some obnoxious behaviour from airline customers, which quickly depleted the airline staff as many sought early retirements.

In the U.S., there are hiring signs in business windows everywhere. If they don’t let some of the Mexicans across the border to live and work in the U.S., those signs will stay there.

The pandemic forced everyone online and this is the way many of us will continue to do business. Many staff left their company as conflicts arose over vaccines and these people have carved out new businesses online and are working for themselves. Many people died and many took early retirement.

The effects of covid on the economy are still being worked out and analysed. We still have another two to three years of covid effects to work through.

The market is messy. Volatile this year due to inflation and post-pandemic factors. Gold will likely rise and the U.S.$ will fall. Two favourite stock picks would be Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA). And remember only buy them on dips.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Jacque

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than life spent doing nothing.”

July 7, 2023

Tech Letter

Mad Hedge Technology Letter
July 7, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(TRAFFIC SAGS FOR THE GENERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY)
(OPENAI), (NVDA)

Traffic Sags for the Generational Technology

Tech Letter

OpenAI’s splash into AI was the secret sauce as to why tech stocks have gone parabolic in 2023.

The platform achieved a remarkable milestone by amassing 100 million monthly active users quite early on, setting a record for the fastest-growing user base.

With ChatGPT’s widespread absorption, OpenAI has been looked at as the savior for revenue models in Silicon Valley.

However, this period of AI enthusiasm has proved to be short-lived, as the technology experiences its first real pullback.

Based on the latest data, ChatGPT experienced a 9.7% decrease in desktop and mobile web traffic during June. The site also saw a decline of 5.7% in unique visitors.

This was followed by an 8.5% decrease in the average time users spent on the site. In the United States, the month-on-month traffic decline for the website was recorded at 10.3%.

The downtrend in traffic is quite surprising considering that groundbreaking new technologies which are still in their honeymoon phases never report any decrease in eyeballs whatsoever.

There's been a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence since ChatGPT was released seven months ago. About a month and a half before the chatbot was released to the public, the stock market bottomed in a bear market around the middle of October.

I am not saying the bottom will fall out of tech stocks, but the gaps up will probably cool down in the short term.

Take example one stock that has performed spectacularly – Nvidia (NVDA).

They have even managed to achieve this against a backdrop of challenging macroeconomic headwinds and a hawkish Federal Reserve.

The drop in ChatGPT interest is a warning sign that the beautiful girl has hit the wall.

It can’t be as simple as investors cheering on AI from the sidelines and then stocks go magically up. It’s not that easy.

The inherent technology needs evidence of outperformance and cannot lack substance.

A significant majority, comprising 61%, of ChatGPT’s user base consists of individuals from Generation Z.

This AI tool has gained considerable popularity for its educational applications.

For example, according to a research report, respondents reported using ChatGPT for educational purposes, with 33% utilizing it for educational assistance. 18% rely on it to comprehend complex concepts, and 15% use it to acquire new skills.

Investors need to understand that sliding interest in ChatGPT could be a catalyst for the AI bubble to lose air.

At the moment, AI's risks are as massive as its potential. We won't know until ten years later whether AI's impact is more akin to the internet or the Google Glass.

There are also other issues. Sam Altman, chief executive at OpenAI, has described the cost of running the services as “eye-watering.”

ChatGPT is free to use but also provides a premium subscription, where users can pay $20 a month to access OpenAI’s more advanced model, GPT-4.

Some 1.5 million people have signed up for the subscription, but the other tens of millions aren’t on board yet. For many people, it’s not worth paying for yet.

OpenAI has projected $200 million in revenue this year.

I believe it is time to take a short-term breather for the moment in AI. AI might turn out to be the shiny star many experts think it will be, but it doesn’t take one day to become that shiny start especially when the majority of OpenAI users are applying it to do their homework.

openai

Quote of the Day - July 7, 2023

Tech Letter

“Things that are real sciences don’t need to put ‘science’ at the end of it.” – Said German-American Investor Peter Thiel

July 7, 2023

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Global Market Comments
July 7, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trades:

(SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2023 ROME, ITALY GLOBAL STRATEGY LUNCHEON)
(HOW TO EXECUTE A MAD HEDGE TRADE ALERT)

CLICK HERE to download today's position sheet.

How to Execute a Mad Hedge Trade Alert

Diary, Newsletter, Summary

Today, I’m going to teach you how to execute one of my market-beating Trade Alerts.

Pay attention because if you have subscribed to Global Trading Dispatch or Mad Hedge Fund Trader Pro, you will receive about 200 of these a year. The alerts will bunch up at market tops and bottoms. After that, we may see weeks of no action. Ideal entry points don’t happen every day of the year.

Following them is your path to understanding global financial markets.

You will also make a lot of money.

Most important is for you to add my email address to your address book. Otherwise, all my trade alerts will go into your spam folder where they will disappear forever.

So please add alert@madhedgefundtrader.com right now to your email address book. To sign up for the Text Alert Service so you can get alerts five seconds after they are issued, please email Filomena at support@madhedgefundtrader.com. Be sure to put “Text Alert Sign Up” in the subject line.

Let me show you a real-world example of how to do a round trip on a trade that I issued a few years ago.

Holy smokes! What’s that?

That pinging sound from your cell phone tells you the Mad Hedge Fund Trader has just sent out a Trade Alert! The urgent text alert says:

MHFT ALERT- Buy ETF (TBT) at $57.06 or best, Opening Trade 9-8-2014, wgt: 10% =174 shares, SEE EMAIL

A few minutes later, you receive the following email:

Sender: Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Subject: Trade Alert - (TBT) September 9, 2014

Trade Alert - (TBT)

Buy the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Treasury ETF (TBT) at $57.06 or best

9-8-2014

Opening Trade

Portfolio weighting: 10%

Number of Shares: 174

You can buy this in a $57-$58 range and have a reasonable expectation of making money on this trade.

Logic to follow.

Here is the specific trade you need to execute this position:

Buy 174 shares of the (TBT) at……………$57.06

(174 shares X $57.56 = $10,015.44)

So that’s how it’s done.

You now own 174 shares of the (TBT). That is a bet that bond prices will rise and interest rates will rise.

So let’s see how that position worked out over the next several days.

Did it work? Did you make money? Let’s see what transpired in the weeks after this trade alert was issued.

It turned out that the TBT was the perfect position to take at that time.

Bond prices fell pretty fast, and interest rates spiked up nicely causing the (TBT) to jump by $2.91 in the following nine days. That works out to a nice little gain of 5%.

By the way, you can pull up these charts anytime you want for free by just going to www.stockcharts.com

What’s that? Here comes another text message from the Mad Hedge Fund Trader! Better check it out.

MHFT ALERT- Sell ETF (TBT) at $59.97 or best, Closing Trade 9-17-2014, wgt: 10% =174 shares, SEE EMAIL.

The following email says:

Sender: Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Subject: Trade Alert - (TBT) September 17, 2014

Trade Alert - (TBT)

Sell the ProShares Ultra Short 20+ Treasury ETF (TBT) at $59.97 or best

9-17-2014

Closing Trade

Portfolio weighting: 10%

Number of Shares: 174

Here is the specific trade you need to exit this position:

Sell 174 shares of the August 2014 (TBT) at……………$59.97

Profit: $59.97 - $57.06 = $2.91

174 shares X $2.91 = $506.34, or 0.51% for the notional $100,000 model portfolio.

So there, you’ve just made $506 in just 9 days, which works out to 0.51% per $100,000.

You did this never risking more than 10% of your cash at any time.

Annualize that, and it works out to 206% a year.

That’s how it’s done. This is how the big boys do it. This is how I do it.

Of course, not every trade is a winner, and not all do this well so quickly. Sometimes, it requires the patience of Job to see a trade through to profitability. Last year, slightly less than 90% of my trades made money. The rest I stopped out of for small losses. That’s because it’s easier to dig yourself out of a small hole than a big one.

But one thing is for sure. You win more games hitting lots of singles. Beginners stand out by swinging for the fences and striking out almost every time.

So, watch your text message service for the next Trade Alert. Watch your email. And you can follow me on your way to successful trading, and to riches.

July 6, 2023

Biotech Letter

Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
July 6, 2023
Fiat Lux

Featured Trade:

(BETWEEN HEADWINDS AND HORIZONS)
(AMGN), (HZNP), (NTLA), (RYTM)

Between Headwinds and Horizons

Biotech Letter

In the pursuit of safe, sustainable, and substantial dividend yields, my quest often leads me to the realm of dividend aristocrats.

A particular entity that has caught my interest is the biotech behemoth Amgen Inc. (AMGN).

Although the company has been treading on a rocky path, with its shares plunging below their previous highs and year-to-date performance, it continues to pique my curiosity. After all, this downward trend does present a silver lining.

It unlocks an investment opportunity in the form of a record 3.9% dividend yield that AMGN currently offers, with its strong business performance and anticipated robust free cash flow countering any valuation concerns.

Still, investing in biotech is more than just a mere bet on a company's innovative prowess. It's also a gamble on the company’s skill to maneuver through the labyrinth of policy interventions.

Recent headlines talk about AMGN's ongoing battles, with a plethora of challenges leading investors to remain on the sidelines.

The IRS' quest for billions in back taxes from the company, the Federal Trade Commission's move to halt its massive acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP), and a Supreme Court ruling against Amgen in a crucial patent case are just some of the headwinds the company faces.

Amidst these, the impending patent cliff hangs like a Damocles sword, with several of its blockbuster drugs, such as Enbrel and Otezla, likely to witness revenue shrinkage owing to patent expirations and intensifying competition.

Yet, despite the grim scenario, there are silver linings.

AMGN's proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics was driven by the latter's key drug, Tepezza. However, declining sales have put the future of this acquisition into question.

Despite the swirling questions, AMGN remains confident about the eventual success of the Horizon deal. Its leadership foresees no anti-competitive barriers obstructing this merger and anticipates a positive outcome from the FTC hearing later this year.

In relation to Tepezza, the company underscores the synergistic benefits post-merger that can enhance the drug's value. Notably, the larger scale and international presence of AMGN, coupled with its manufacturing expertise, will give a significant boost to Tepezza's sales.

The company has other acquisition options if the Horizon deal hits a roadblock.

Potential targets could be Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (RYTM), both of which offer great value at the current price point. The addition of these companies could enhance AMGN's portfolio with promising therapies for rare genetic disorders while providing a potentially novel gene-editing technology.

Furthermore, AMGN is upping the ante in its biosimilar initiatives, viewing its protein manufacturing and clinical development capabilities as its unique strengths. An excellent example is the successful launch of its recent biosimilar, AMJEVITA. Moreover, the company’s plans for more candidates attest to this optimism.

Meanwhile, AMGN's efforts are showing results. Despite a dip in the first quarter of 2023’s net income due to higher expenses, there was a robust volume growth powered by several tailwinds, including the fading impact of COVID. This, along with record sales of key drugs, lends the company confidence for the rest of the year and beyond.

The company also sees growth in international markets, especially in aging populations like Japan and China, and remains optimistic about its growth potential despite price erosion and competition.

On the dividends front, AMGN scores highly with its current yield of 3.9%, backed by a modest 46% payout ratio. Its impressive dividend growth record, coupled with anticipated free cash flow, makes it a promising candidate for dividend growth investors.

Overall, the company’s current stock price offers an attractive opportunity despite the challenges ahead. Given its current trajectory, it’s apparent that AMGN's track record of outperforming the market could very well repeat in the future, promising potentially lucrative returns for those who dare to navigate through the headwinds.

amgn