Voice Deepfakes Of Everyone From Joe Rogan To Joe Biden Are Taking Over Social Media
It takes around two hours for Pade to make each of the videos, which range from 30 seconds to one minute in length. He records gameplay and then generates the voices using AI. “I actually start with the TikTok or vertical video then I make the YouTube video after, and maybe add a couple more jokes that go on that video, since YouTube likes longer content,” he said.
He has some theories as to why the videos work. “I think the absurdity of seeing famous figures in any random gaming session is genuinely hilarious,” he said. “Surprisingly I see a lot of love for the ones where figures that might not get along in real life — like Trump and Biden — are having wholesome moments together. I think part of it is a relief from seeing figures that are always embroiled in controversy in a different light, even if it’s fake.”
It’s not just the leaders of the free world and the leading light in podcasting who are being mimicked using the power of AI. Joe Marotta has been using the tech to give new life to his personal interest: professional wrestling. Marotta, a 37-year-old podcaster from New Jersey, came across a use of AI-generated audio in early February on Twitter. He thought the tech would be a fun way to promote his retro pop culture podcast, Acid Washed Memories. The idea was to get 1980s pro wrestling commentators Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan to hawk it.
“I signed up for [ElevenLabs] and put Gorilla and Bobby’s voices in there to do a promo for Acid Washed Memories, and was happy with how it came out,” he wrote via Twitter DM. The success of the podcast promo skit pushed Marotta to test the tech further. “I figured, ‘Okay, well, what if Gorilla Monsoon had a podcast? What would he say?’”
The resulting foul-mouthed AI parody, first posted on Twitter on Feb. 6, has since been viewed nearly 320,000 times. It worked because it pokes fun at the gap between Monsoon’s friendly, laid-back onscreen demeanor and his short-tempered tendencies when the camera is off, and because of a recent trend of faded names from the history of wrestling launching their own podcasts.
It takes around two hours for Pade to make each of the videos, which range from 30 seconds to one minute in length. He records gameplay and then generates the voices using AI. “I actually start with the TikTok or vertical video then I make the YouTube video after, and…
