#Speech-to-text API

[engenhariadesoftware]

As Melhores IAs de Conversação com Fala Gratuitas

Introdução às IAs de Conversação com Fala Nos últimos anos, as IAs de conversação com fala têm ganhado destaque em diversas áreas, desde assistentes pessoais até chatbots empresariais, passando por sistemas de automação doméstica. Esses sistemas utilizam tecnologias avançadas de reconhecimento de fala, processamento de linguagem natural (NLP) e síntese de fala (Text-to-Speech) para permitir uma…

[updated-reviews]

Elevate Your Marketing Videos: The Power of AI Text-to-Speech with Different Voices

In today's fast-paced digital world, capturing audience attention is more crucial than ever. Marketing videos have become a cornerstone of successful marketing campaigns, offering a dynamic and engaging way to connect with your target audience. However, creating high-quality video content can be a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, especially when it comes to professional voiceovers.

This is where the magic of AI text-to-speech (TTS) technology comes in. Imagine a world where you can transform your marketing scripts into captivating voiceovers with just a few clicks. AI text-to-speech allows you to do just that, offering a powerful and versatile tool for businesses of all sizes. By leveraging the power of AI, you can create professional-sounding voiceovers in a variety of styles and languages, all at a fraction of the traditional cost.

Beyond the Human Voice: Unveiling the Versatility of AI Text-to-Speech (AI text to speech different voices)

Gone are the days of being limited to a single voice narrator. AI text-to-speech technology boasts a vast library of AI voices, each offering unique characteristics and personalities. This opens up a world of possibilities for your marketing videos. Imagine tailoring the voiceover to perfectly match the tone and style of your brand. Need a friendly and approachable voice for a product explainer video? AI has you covered. Creating a high-energy commercial? No problem! The variety of AI voices allows you to select the perfect narrator to resonate with your target audience and enhance the overall message of your video.

But the versatility of AI text-to-speech goes beyond just voice selection. Many platforms allow you to fine-tune the speaking style, adjusting the pace, pitch, and even adding emphasis for dramatic effect. This level of control empowers you to craft the ideal voiceover that seamlessly integrates with the visuals of your video, creating a truly immersive experience for viewers.

Crafting the Perfect Tone: How AI Creates Emotionally-Charged Voiceovers (convert text to speech with emotions AI)

The human voice is a powerful tool for conveying emotions. A skilled voiceover artist can inject the right amount of enthusiasm, authority, or warmth to captivate the audience. But what if you could achieve the same level of emotional resonance with AI? Believe it or not, AI text-to-speech technology is rapidly evolving to incorporate emotional intelligence.

Some advanced platforms allow you to choose from a range of pre-programmed emotional styles, such as joyful, persuasive, or urgent. This allows you to tailor the emotional delivery of your voiceover to perfectly compliment the message you're trying to convey. Imagine a heartwarming ad for a charity using a gentle and compassionate voice, or a product demonstration packed with excitement and energy. AI text-to-speech empowers you to evoke the desired emotions in your audience, fostering a deeper connection and ultimately driving results.

Elevate Your Reach: Expanding Your Audience with Multilingual AI Voices (AI text to speech for marketing videos)

The global marketplace offers a vast pool of potential customers. However, language barriers can often present a significant hurdle for marketing campaigns. AI text-to-speech technology breaks down these barriers by offering a multilingual solution. Many platforms support a wide range of languages, allowing you to create voiceovers in the native tongue of your target audience. This not only enhances the overall understanding and engagement of your videos but also demonstrates a commitment to catering to a global audience.

Imagine reaching new markets and expanding your brand awareness without the need for expensive voiceover translations. AI text-to-speech provides a cost-effective and efficient way to localize your marketing videos, ensuring your message resonates across borders.

From Budget-Friendly Options to Premium Solutions: Choosing the Best AI Text-to-Speech Software (best AI text to speech software)

The beauty of AI text-to-speech technology lies in its accessibility. A variety of options are available, catering to different needs and budgets. For those just starting out, several free AI text-to-speech converters (free AI text to speech converter) offer basic functionality. These platforms can be a great way to experiment with AI voiceovers and see if they align with your marketing strategy. However, keep in mind that free options may have limitations in terms of voice selection, audio quality, and customization features.

For businesses seeking a more professional and feature-rich solution, several premium AI text-to-speech software providers exist. These platforms offer a wider range of voices, advanced control over audio parameters, and even integration with text to speech API with AI for seamless workflow integration with your video editing software. While premium options come with a cost, the investment can pay off handsomely, allowing you to create high-quality marketing videos that truly stand out from the crowd.

[smsgatewayindia]

Voice Call Software - SMPPCenter.com | OBD Voice Call Solutions

Discover SMPPCenter.com's advanced OBD voice call software. Rent or buy licensed software to send OTP voice calls, connect with HTTP vendors, use Text to Speech, and more. Engage globally with high throughput, secure platform, and comprehensive management tools.

[bhavanameti]

TOP 10 COMPANIES IN SPEECH-TO-TEXT API MARKET

The Speech-to-text API Market is projected to reach $10 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 17.3% from 2023 to 2030. This market's expansion is fueled by the widespread use of voice-enabled devices, increasing applications of voice and speech technologies for transcription, technological advancements, and the rising adoption of connected devices. However, the market's growth is restrained by the lack of accuracy in recognizing regional accents and dialects in speech-to-text API solutions.

Innovations aimed at enhancing speech-to-text solutions for specially-abled individuals and developing API solutions for rare and local languages are expected to create growth opportunities in this market. Nonetheless, data security and privacy concerns pose significant challenges. Additionally, the increasing demand for voice authentication in mobile banking applications is a prominent trend in the speech-to-text API market.

Top 10 Companies in the Speech-to-text API Market

Google LLC

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in California, U.S., Google is a global leader in search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, and more. Google’s Speech-to-Text is a cloud-based transcription tool that leverages AI to provide real-time transcription in over 80 languages from both live and pre-recorded audio.

Microsoft Corporation

Established in 1975 and headquartered in Washington, U.S., Microsoft Corporation offers a range of technology services, including cloud computing and AI-driven solutions. Microsoft’s speech-to-text services enable accurate transcription across multiple languages, supporting applications like customer self-service and speech analytics.

Amazon Web Services, Inc.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Washington, U.S., Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides scalable cloud computing platforms. AWS’s speech-to-text software supports real-time transcription and translation, enhancing various business applications with its robust infrastructure.

IBM Corporation

Founded in 1911 and headquartered in New York, U.S., IBM Corporation focuses on digital transformation and data security. IBM’s speech-to-text service, part of its Watson Assistant, offers multilingual transcription capabilities for diverse use cases, including customer service and speech analytics.

Verint Systems Inc.

Established in 1994 and headquartered in New York, U.S., Verint Systems specializes in customer engagement management. Verint’s speech transcription solutions provide accurate data via an API, supporting call recording and speech analytics within their contact center solutions.

Download Sample Report Here @ https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5473

Rev.com, Inc.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Texas, U.S., Rev.com offers transcription, closed captioning, and subtitling services. Rev AI’s Speech-to-Text API delivers high-accuracy transcription services, enhancing accessibility and audience reach for various brands.

Twilio Inc.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in California, U.S., Twilio provides communication APIs for voice, text, chat, and video. Twilio’s speech recognition solutions facilitate real-time transcription and intent analysis during voice calls, supporting comprehensive customer engagement.

Baidu, Inc.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Beijing, China, Baidu is a leading AI company offering a comprehensive AI stack. Baidu’s speech recognition capabilities are part of its diverse product portfolio, supporting applications across natural language processing and augmented reality.

Speechmatics

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., Speechmatics is a leader in deep learning and speech recognition. Their speech-to-text API delivers highly accurate transcription by training on vast amounts of data, minimizing AI bias and recognition errors.

VoiceCloud

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, U.S., VoiceCloud offers cloud-based voice-to-text transcription services. Their API provides high-quality transcription for applications such as voicemail, voice notes, and call recordings, supporting services in English and Spanish across 15 countries.

Top 10 companies: https://meticulousblog.org/top-10-companies-in-speech-to-text-api-market/

[greetings-inferiors]

Yes, hi, what's happening to reddit? I usually check some fandom news there but everything is private/blocked now? I have an account and not even that allows me to enter?

Reddit is changing their policy so they every thousand api requests they charge money. This means that third party apps, moderation tools, and other various things just won’t work anymore, since these things rack up thousands of requests very quickly, they’d just be unsustainable to run.

This cost would be average out to a dollar per month per person using third party applications, like an alternative app, text to speech, moderation tools, etc. Reddit has millions and million of users, most of which would be affected.

For example, Apollo for Reddit, a popular third party alternative to the Reddit app (which I used myself, seriously the Reddit app is abysmal) would cost $20MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR TO RUN. Given the app is developed by one guy, that legitimately puts him out of business.

Moderation would get even worse than it already is, as moderation tools use the api to effectively moderate, but now it’s at a cost.

The reason why this change is happening, is because the API can be used to collect data for AI, and, to quote the CEO, “the Reddit corpus of data is really valuable” and he doesn't want to “need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”

So, once again, AI and capitalism is ruining things for everyone else.

This is a change that is created solely to make money without thinking for a second about the millions of people it would effect. This lead to 7000 of the most popular subreddits blacking out for 48 hours in protest, and I’m pretty sure it crashed the whole site. The voice of the people has definitely been heard, now it’s just time to see if it’s done anything.

Edit: I got something wrong! Thanks to all who corrected me! No thanks to the anon who was an asshole about it lmao

It’s not that Reddit is charging that’s the problem, it’s that it’s charging way too much, is way too short of a deadline to change it, and spez is just an asshole lying about the Apollo dev. Still a shit situation! Just not exactly for the reasons I said. Look into the reblogs for people who know more!!

[xavigav]

The Reddit Blackout, #196, And Being New to Tumblr

okay i've seen a lot of people in the past ~24 hours or so confused by everything going on with Reddit & Tumblr from both sides - people new to tumblr who don't know how to use it, and tumblr users who don't know what's going on with reddit and why many of its users have joined up here i know this isn't really related to my blog but fun fact about me: i was up until recently a very active reddit user and even mod a subreddit, but I've also been on tumblr for about 3 years now on different accounts, so I think I can see pretty well from both sides of this and explain what's going on this post will be split in 2 sections: what happened with reddit (and what #196 means), and a guide for new users

1. What The Hell Is Going On With Reddit?

The thing that's caused all this ruckus is a major change to Reddit's API, which is what Reddit provides to people so they can pull directly from Reddit to make third-party apps or tools.

The change is that Reddit is changing its previously free API to be paid. Which on its own kinda sucks for developers, but it's not unexpected. They need to make money somehow, right?

The problem is that the API pricing is WAY TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE. The developer of the most popular 3rd party Reddit app, Apollo, says it will cost him $20 million a year to continue running the app as normal.

Essentially, this pricing forces almost everything third-party to shut down, which causes 3 major problems:

Third-party apps cannot keep running, which sucks for normal users because Reddit's official app is awful. It's slow, its video player is a thing of nightmares, it doesn't have many useful features third-party developers have made.

It sucks even more for visually impaired users because they can't use the official Reddit app at all. Reddit's official app does not work with iOS's native text-to-speech function. Third party apps, on the other hand, often do. So Reddit is forcing blind users away.

Third-party moderator tools cannot keep running, which sucks for moderators because many rely on these tools to properly moderate their subreddits. And moderators are often necessary, because without them subreddits get banned and hate speech and even CSA can often run rampant.

So you see why this change is bad.

Reddit users were PISSED.

So over the past week and a half or so, they have been working on organizing a site-wide blackout. The majority of the most active subreddits have now gone private. Some are only doing it for 48 hours, others (such as r/196) are doing it indefinitely.

That's why you can't access most of Reddit right now, and that's why many users have come here.

You're probably still wondering, though - what is this #196?

Well, as you may guess, it's connected to that subreddit r/196 I just mentioned. r/196 is a subreddit which only has one rule: every time you visit, you must post before you leave.

That's it, that's the subreddit.

The thing about r/196 that set it apart from most other subreddits - and what lends the subreddit's users perfectly to Tumblr - is that it was dominated by queer and leftist users.

So now they've come here and set up shop in #196 and r/196 so they can continue their merry little shitposting.

There's a ton of lore related to r/196, actually, but this is already a long tumblr post and quite frankly I cannot be bothered to write about it at the moment.

2. I'm Here From Reddit, What Now?

Hello there, random new user. As a double-citizen of Reddit and Tumblr, let me show you around this place.

First off, there are some other people who are better at explaining that I am who have made some really helpful things. Watch this Strange Aeons video as a guide to Tumblr culture and functionality and read this post which directly compares Reddit and Tumblr.

Assuming you've done that, here's some additional advice of my own:

Do you miss sorting subreddits by top of all time/the year/the month? Well, you can do something very similar with tags! If you go to a tag at the top of the screen you can select top, and then at the dropdown that says "all time" you can select different time periods! Even 6 months, which Reddit hasn't ever had.

Tumblr has a lot of cool customization features! Even outside your icon/banner/bio, you can change you blog colors and on desktop you can have an html theme (which has its own thriving community here). That customization is part of what sets Tumblr apart from everywhere else - I think you'll enjoy playing with it.

Notes will probably confuse you at first. Unlike the different numbers for upvotes and comments, notes combines the total number of likes, reblogs, and replies into the same number.

Outside of organizing your own blog, when making your own posts tags are what help other people find your post. Use them! But don't abuse them, because then people will just block you.

There are three ways of people finding your post: if someone follows you, if someone follows the tag(s) assigned to your post, and if someone is just scrolling through the tag(s) assigned to your post (and also the secret 4th way no one uses, which is finding it on the trending page, but even if people did use it no one will find your post initially that way)

tumblr is no longer The Discourse Website. And unlike what Reddit wants you to believe for some reason, it is very much alive still. Most of the people seeking fights have moved to Twitter (though some have also moved back here again). You will not get any brownie points for being a dipshit like you do on some subreddits.

So there, welcome to the hellsite (affectionate), you'll pick up on all the in-jokes eventually, for now just try not to be a nuisance and soon enough this'll be your new internet home.

[selfpossesedghost]

We need to talk about Reddit.

Edit: Reddit CEO said "this too shall pass" when referencing the protest. Because of this, we need to continue protesting indefinitely.

Reddit, a platform I use regularly to interact with Fandoms, has recently increased its pricing for third-party API. The pricing is so steep that it is completely unaffordable and some third-party developers have already announced they are shutting down.

Mods on Reddit rely heavily on these third-party API products as Reddit's is trash.

This means it may be nearly impossible to properly filter and moderate subreddits.

Furthermore,

People with visual impairments will have a significantly harder time accessing Reddit and Subreddits.

This is due to these API providing proper text to speech apps and more.

I won't pretend to understand, but I will provide links at the bottom explaining more in depth.

Many Subreddits and users are GOING DARK on June 12 and June 13th, 2023.

Do NOT use the app, the website, or interact with it whatsoever unless it is on other platforms to protest.

For the betterment of the platform and the users, we must get this new rule overturned. Join Me in the protest.

Links:

The Dragon Age subreddit explaining why they are joining the fight:

The official moderator subreddit detailing the situation:

The Star Wars Subreddit joining:

The official subreddit to save 3rd party apps:

[stevebattle]

Romi conversation AI robot, Mixi, Japan (2021). "Romi is a specialized conversation robot that fits snugly in the palm of your hand. Differing from conventional robots equipped with fixed responses, Romi utilizes our cutting-edge proprietary communication AI to keep conversations going, meaning that you can speak to Romi just like a real human. We developed Romi to provide comfort like a pet and understanding like a family member. Possessing a rich range of emotional expression, Romi can share your happiness, sadness, and anger. Romi is sure to brighten your life with over 100 facial expressions and movement patterns and help you bring out the best of every day with over 100 functions such as alarms and reminders." – Providing space and opportunity for communication with Romi, Mixi.

"First, when a person speaks to Romi, Romi converts the voice data into string data via the Google Cloud Speech API. When this string data is sent to the conversation server, the server constructs the answer as text data and returns it to Romi. Finally, Romi uses text-to-speech to convert text into speech and respond to people. Romi uses generative AI in its conversation server to construct answers to people. However, the generative AI model used by Romi is "in a different direction of development'' from models such as GPT-4 … [where] hallucination becomes a major issue. On the other hand, Shinoda's managers tuned Romi based on the idea that even if there were some mistakes, 'as long as it's fun to talk about and the users laugh, that's fine.' This is one of the reasons why we used Stable LM as the base model for our original AI." – an interview with Harumi Shinoda, Vantage Studio Romi Division Development Group Manager, MIXI's conversation robot "Romi" that heals people, AI tuning that emphasizes fun over accuracy.

[techblogmeta]

Why Gemini is Better than ChatGpt?

Gemini's Advantages Over ChatGPT

Both Gemini and ChatGPT are sophisticated AI models made to communicate with people like a human and help with a variety of tasks. But in some situations, Gemini stands out as a more sophisticated and adaptable option because to a number of characteristics it offers:

1. Multimodal Proficiency Gemini provides smooth multimodal interaction, enabling users to communicate with speech, text, and image inputs. Gemini is therefore well-suited for visually complex queries or situations where integrating media enhances comprehension since it can comprehend and produce answers that incorporate many forms of content.

2. Improved comprehension of context Geminis are better at comprehending and remembering context in lengthier interactions. It can manage intricate conversations, providing more precise and tailored answers without losing sight of previous debate points.

3. Original Work From excellent writing to eye-catching graphics and artistic representations, Gemini is a master at producing unique content. It is a favored option for projects demanding innovation due to its exceptional capacity to produce distinctive products.

4. Knowledge and Updates in Real Time In contrast to ChatGPT, which uses a static knowledge base that is updated on a regular basis, Gemini uses more dynamic learning techniques to make sure it stays current with data trends and recent events.

5. Customization and User-Friendly Interface With Gemini's improved customization options and more user-friendly interface, users can adjust replies, tone, and style to suit their own requirements. This flexibility is especially helpful for professionals and companies trying to keep their branding consistent.

6. More Comprehensive Integration Gemini is very flexible for both personal and commercial use because it integrates more easily into third-party tools, workflows, and apps because to its native support for a variety of platforms and APIs.

7. Improved Security and Privacy Users can feel secure knowing that their data is protected during interactions thanks to Gemini's emphasis on user data privacy, which includes greater encryption and adherence to international standards.

[max1461]

Potential new use for ChatGPT, but I might need little bit of help with it.

Often, I have some kind of PDF or other document, and I want to convert it to audio with text-to-speech. The problem is that if you apply text-to-speech directly to your average PDF, especially of an academic article, it will try to read a lot of things you don't actually want it to read—titles at the top of every page, interrupting things mid sentence, footnotes, also interrupting the article mid sentence, the literal text of any figures displayed on the page, which usually comes out as a bunch of garbled nonsense, it's a mess.

So I had the idea of feeding the text of an article to ChatGPT and asking it to clean up the formatting for me. This seems generally within its range of capabilities. Ideally I'd like to do this programmatically (can you do that? Is there a ChatGPT API?), but before even getting to that stage I have a problem. Testing it out with a small sample of text, what I'm getting is the following.

Input text:

Output text:

As you can see, it does a pretty good job of detecting formatting oddities and removing them—better than any code I could write to do the same. But unfortunately it also changes the wording slightly in random places, including in places not adjacent to any formatting oddities it's meant to be cleaning up.

Does anyone have an recommendations for how I could engineer the prompt a bit to get it to stop doing this?

[govindhtech]

Open Platform For Enterprise AI Avatar Chatbot Creation

How may an AI avatar chatbot be created using the Open Platform For Enterprise AI framework?

I. Flow Diagram

The graph displays the application’s overall flow. The Open Platform For Enterprise AI GenAIExamples repository’s “Avatar Chatbot” serves as the code sample. The “AvatarChatbot” megaservice, the application’s central component, is highlighted in the flowchart diagram. Four distinct microservices Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Large Language Model (LLM), Text-to-Speech (TTS), and Animation are coordinated by the megaservice and linked into a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG).

Every microservice manages a specific avatar chatbot function. For instance:

Software for voice recognition that translates spoken words into text is called Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR).

By comprehending the user’s query, the Large Language Model (LLM) analyzes the transcribed text from ASR and produces the relevant text response.

The text response produced by the LLM is converted into audible speech by a text-to-speech (TTS) service.

The animation service makes sure that the lip movements of the avatar figure correspond with the synchronized speech by combining the audio response from TTS with the user-defined AI avatar picture or video. After then, a video of the avatar conversing with the user is produced.

An audio question and a visual input of an image or video are among the user inputs. A face-animated avatar video is the result. By hearing the audible response and observing the chatbot’s natural speech, users will be able to receive input from the avatar chatbot that is nearly real-time.

Create the “Animation” microservice in the GenAIComps repository

We would need to register a new microservice, such “Animation,” under comps/animation in order to add it:

Register the microservice

@register_microservice( name=”opea_service@animation”, service_type=ServiceType.ANIMATION, endpoint=”/v1/animation”, host=”0.0.0.0″, port=9066, input_datatype=Base64ByteStrDoc, output_datatype=VideoPath, ) @register_statistics(names=[“opea_service@animation”])

It specify the callback function that will be used when this microservice is run following the registration procedure. The “animate” function, which accepts a “Base64ByteStrDoc” object as input audio and creates a “VideoPath” object with the path to the generated avatar video, will be used in the “Animation” case. It send an API request to the “wav2lip” FastAPI’s endpoint from “animation.py” and retrieve the response in JSON format.

Remember to import it in comps/init.py and add the “Base64ByteStrDoc” and “VideoPath” classes in comps/cores/proto/docarray.py!

This link contains the code for the “wav2lip” server API. Incoming audio Base64Str and user-specified avatar picture or video are processed by the post function of this FastAPI, which then outputs an animated video and returns its path.

The functional block for its microservice is created with the aid of the aforementioned procedures. It must create a Dockerfile for the “wav2lip” server API and another for “Animation” to enable the user to launch the “Animation” microservice and build the required dependencies. For instance, the Dockerfile.intel_hpu begins with the PyTorch* installer Docker image for Intel Gaudi and concludes with the execution of a bash script called “entrypoint.”

Create the “AvatarChatbot” Megaservice in GenAIExamples

The megaservice class AvatarChatbotService will be defined initially in the Python file “AvatarChatbot/docker/avatarchatbot.py.” Add “asr,” “llm,” “tts,” and “animation” microservices as nodes in a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) using the megaservice orchestrator’s “add” function in the “add_remote_service” function. Then, use the flow_to function to join the edges.

Specify megaservice’s gateway

An interface through which users can access the Megaservice is called a gateway. The Python file GenAIComps/comps/cores/mega/gateway.py contains the definition of the AvatarChatbotGateway class. The host, port, endpoint, input and output datatypes, and megaservice orchestrator are all contained in the AvatarChatbotGateway. Additionally, it provides a handle_request function that plans to send the first microservice the initial input together with parameters and gathers the response from the last microservice.

In order for users to quickly build the AvatarChatbot backend Docker image and launch the “AvatarChatbot” examples, we must lastly create a Dockerfile. Scripts to install required GenAI dependencies and components are included in the Dockerfile.

II. Face Animation Models and Lip Synchronization

GFPGAN + Wav2Lip

A state-of-the-art lip-synchronization method that uses deep learning to precisely match audio and video is Wav2Lip. Included in Wav2Lip are:

A skilled lip-sync discriminator that has been trained and can accurately identify sync in actual videos

A modified LipGAN model to produce a frame-by-frame talking face video

An expert lip-sync discriminator is trained using the LRS2 dataset as part of the pretraining phase. To determine the likelihood that the input video-audio pair is in sync, the lip-sync expert is pre-trained.

A LipGAN-like architecture is employed during Wav2Lip training. A face decoder, a visual encoder, and a speech encoder are all included in the generator. Convolutional layer stacks make up all three. Convolutional blocks also serve as the discriminator. The modified LipGAN is taught similarly to previous GANs: the discriminator is trained to discriminate between frames produced by the generator and the ground-truth frames, and the generator is trained to minimize the adversarial loss depending on the discriminator’s score. In total, a weighted sum of the following loss components is minimized in order to train the generator:

A loss of L1 reconstruction between the ground-truth and produced frames

A breach of synchronization between the lip-sync expert’s input audio and the output video frames

Depending on the discriminator score, an adversarial loss between the generated and ground-truth frames

After inference, it provide the audio speech from the previous TTS block and the video frames with the avatar figure to the Wav2Lip model. The avatar speaks the speech in a lip-synced video that is produced by the trained Wav2Lip model.

Lip synchronization is present in the Wav2Lip-generated movie, although the resolution around the mouth region is reduced. To enhance the face quality in the produced video frames, it might optionally add a GFPGAN model after Wav2Lip. The GFPGAN model uses face restoration to predict a high-quality image from an input facial image that has unknown deterioration. A pretrained face GAN (like Style-GAN2) is used as a prior in this U-Net degradation removal module. A more vibrant and lifelike avatar representation results from prettraining the GFPGAN model to recover high-quality facial information in its output frames.

SadTalker

It provides another cutting-edge model option for facial animation in addition to Wav2Lip. The 3D motion coefficients (head, stance, and expression) of a 3D Morphable Model (3DMM) are produced from audio by SadTalker, a stylized audio-driven talking-head video creation tool. The input image is then sent through a 3D-aware face renderer using these coefficients, which are mapped to 3D key points. A lifelike talking head video is the result.

Intel made it possible to use the Wav2Lip model on Intel Gaudi Al accelerators and the SadTalker and Wav2Lip models on Intel Xeon Scalable processors.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[what-gs-watching]

“It all looked so simple in Jane Austen.”

So after I finished Good Omens (and sobbed, and got deep into fanfic, and sobbed some more, and then immediately started it over, and over)  I harassed my sister into watching both seasons, she’s on maternity leave and was looking for something. I made her text me along her journey and I was sooo excited for her to get to the end, I was literally tracking her and squealing about it to my husband.

Gang. After she watched the finale, she just said “I never got a romantic vibe from them….”

Like. I can’t. I literally said “c’mon that’s not real” but she doubled down. I understand we���re different people and we watch things differently but jesus. It was extremely disappointing. This is why she always wanted to unsubscribe from What G’s Watching, clearly. 

But we’re gonna shake it off, and talk about it. Season 2 episode 6. And how absolutely fucking crushing it is. Thank god for the internet. 

Right. So Aziraphale starts enacting his own plan while Shax tries to be menacing outside, setting up his portal to heaven. It looks good on baby boy, not going to lie, guardian of the Eastern gate comes out, it’s that ‘little bit of a bastard’ we’ve been looking for all season.

Up in heaven Crowley gives a rousing speech about bees to convince Muriel to take him to her office,  and then changes his getup after they call him a “murder hornet, or a snake…” Bravo to whoever designed this outfit, the tracksuit and the little sandals and his painted nails. He’s hippity hoppity Crowley and it’s so endearing. 

Muriel is fairly upset when they realize they’re helping a demon but they produce Gabriel’s file anyway because they can’t open it, so why not; “you need to be a throne or dominion or above.” But Crowley can. And I know there are a ton of theories out there about why he can, but my favorite likens Crowley to an engineer (he did create the stars, afterall) that’s been fired by a lazy startup who never changes their API keys. Of course, that’s not as salacious as the thought that he was an important angel before he fell, but it’s my favorite thought. I love engineers. 

Come to find out that Gabriel had decided that he didn’t want to do Armageddon 2: Electric Boogaloo, refusing to use his powers as Supreme Archangel, and the rest of the crew were none too happy about it. Saraquel shows up while they’re watching the scene unfold, and again Crowley doesn’t remember someone he supposedly worked closely with (more implications, but I can’t right now) and so she lets Crowley see Gabriel’s resulting “trial”.

Surprise, Metatron is running the thing - Gabriel thinks he’ll be sent down to hell but he says  no, one archangel cast down is a good story but two makes it look like an institutional problem (it absolutely is) and so instead he’ll have his memory wiped, and become a scrivener, one level below Muriel. Crowley gives her a sweet little pat on the arm when she’s proud of that, it’s so endearing. 

Gabriel seems to take it in stride, asks if he can clean out his desk and they let him, because sure, and he makes a break for it. You can see him stripping out of his heavenly suit while wielding the box he showed up to Az’s shop with, scribbling something on the bottom and then dropping the matchbox as he enters the elevator. 

When they realize he’s doing something squirrely, they try to wipe his memory without him present (y’all dicks)  only to realize he’s no longer in heaven. Metatron is none too happy, it’s clear that mofo is pulling the strings entirely, and instead of sounding the alarm, he wants the other angels to find him, quickly and quietly.

Back at the shop, Shax tries to convince Maggie and Nina into letting them in, taunting Maggie who is suddenly very brave , butMaggie accidentally tells them to come in and say their insults to her face. So, they do. 

And Aziraphale’s trick with the portal works for a bit, stupid demons keep stepping in and getting vaporized, but that’s not going to work for long so they retreat up the spiral stairs while the demons advance. 

At the top, Nina and Maggie arm themselves with fire extinguishers, a lot of fire extinguishers. Which I’m sure we all imagine is Crowley’s doing, I can see him trying to clandestinely fill the bookshop with them after the devastating fire. I guarantee it’s his (not so) irrational fear. And you know Aziraphale noticed but said nothing about it, because why would they talk about those horrible feelings.

So as the demons try to climb the stairs the girls are spraying the extinguishers and that works a bit too. Shax is back at trying to be menacing, though she does a bit of a better job - calling Az Crowley’s emotional support angel, she accuses him, “the softest touch, the one who went native”, sneering at him about big human meals and sushi. And you can see it gets to him. He’s probably thinking he should be more ferocious in the face of all this.

And then the girls run out of extinguishers and they ask if they can throw books and he hates the idea, they offer encyclopedias and he acquiesces. I love the look on his face while they’re hurling the books though, he has gone native but it’s in the sweetest little ways. He loves knowledge; Crowley gave humans knowledge.

It’s now time for Aziraphale to do something, really do something, so he goes for broke. He steels himself and he removes his halo from seemingly nothing and he throws it down into the shop. One of the demons toe at it gently and then TADA! All demons (except Shax) are blown to bits. Guardian Aziraphale says “I may have just started a war”, because of course he did. 

In heaven, Crowley, Muriel and Saraquel see alarm bells so they decide to head back down to get involved in Aziraphale’s mess, and I love the scene in the elevator with all the angels huddled against one side while Crowley grins at them from the other and his clothes change back, “funny old world, isn't’ it?”

When they show up in the bookshop Az is so excited and Crowley asks what he did to them all. He’s not proud to admit he “did the thing with the halo” but Crowley absolutely loves it; yes he loves to rescue Aziraphale but he also loves when Aziraphale stands up for himself. Boy is tickled over it. 

But of course shit’s about to get real, Beelzebub shows up with a handful of demons all thrilled that they’re finally at war. Crowley isn’t having it, he’s commanding a room full of idiot angels and idiot demons and he asks Az for the box Jim/Gabriel showed up with so they can sort this shit out. On the bottom, he’d written “I’m in the FLY!” 

So they turn it over to Beez, who finds the fly that’s been sneaking around the entire season, and she says “it’s familiar.” she coaxes it over to her, sweetly, “look at you, you’re perfect.” It’s a turnaround for her - we haven’t seen much of her this season but last season she was absolutely not any kind of soft. 

She gives the fly to Gabriel, tells him to take it gently and open it. And he does. 

Is this part a little rushed? Yes. We see Gabriel traveling through his memories, meeting Beezlebub during the apocalypse-that-wasn’t, commiserating over their jobs. And then they meet in a pub to talk about apocalypse mark II, but their hearts don’t seem exactly in it. A third meeting, where Gabriel proposes they maybe don’t armageddon at all - Beez is intrigued, and agrees, and they hear “Everyday” playing on the pub’s speakers. Beezlebub says she likes it, and Gabriel decides that if she does, he does too. 

Every time they meet they say there’s no reason to ever meet again. And then a fourth time, Gabriel takes Beez to his statue in Edinburgh (which I think is absolutely hilarious, calling back to the conversation in 1827 wherein Crowley suggests he comes down to stare at it and marvel at his own beauty. Bingo.)

They go to the Resurrectionist pub afterward and they sit in a cozy little booth at the back. Gabriel miracles the jukebox to play “Everyday”, he tells Beez it’ll always be there on, to ease the afflicted, and she’s appreciative of the gesture. She gives him a gift in return, the fly, which she says is a container. Gabriel says “no one’s ever actually given me anything before.”

And that’s all it takes, y’all. Heaven is so sterile and unfeeling and clean and cold that all it takes for an archangel to think ‘fuck it’ is a small gesture of kindness, of thought. For someone to give him something. Crowley’s been giving Aziraphale things for 6,000 years.

In the shop, Gabriel is full Gabriel now and everyone realizes slowly what’s going on. Beezlebub is called a traitor for collaborating with heaven, but she says she didn’t collaborate any more than Gabriel did. And then she says:

“I just found something that mattered more to me than choosing sides.”

The LOOK on Aziraphale’s face, he reaches out and grabs Crowley’s shoulder. Sweet angel is incredulous and excited and hopeful. And it’s what Crowley has been trying to tell him ALL ALONG. They matter more than choosing sides, they always have. 

Is it infuriating that Gabriel and Beezlebub can figure this out in what must feel like, 30 seconds to them? Absolutely. But the problem is, neither one of them gives a shit about earth or humanity. Crowley and Az are on their own side, but that side has always included the stupid little planet that brought them together. So it can’t be as simple. Nothing can ever be as simple. 

Meanwhile, Nina and Maggie are still in the shop but they need to  be ushered out so as not to turn into pillars of salt. Crowley says he’ll take them but Aziraphale is still holding his shoulder and when he breaks away you can see Az take a few steps forward still reaching for him. He’s so close to getting what he wants, if they can just wrap this situation up.

The point is, Beezlebub and Gabriel want to go off together and be left alone. Crowley tells the Alpha Centauri is nice, he always wanted to go, and Aziraphale’s face, again, jesus Michael Sheen and that face. The flicker of recognition and understanding, my poor heart. Beez tells  Shax she can be a duke of hell to discourage her from looking for them, and then they hold each other’s hands and disappear while singing “Everyday”. Annoying yes, but still sweet. 

In the coffee shop, there’s a slightly familiar old man, fucking Metraton, ordering a coffee from Nina and he asks her if anyone ever asks for ‘death’, gesturing at the name of the shop. She says no, they don’t, he says “No I don’t suppose they do, so predictable.” 

This asshole takes the coffee he ordered and heads over to the bookshop, interrupting the threats to be erased from the book of life being hurled at Aziraphale. The angels don’t recognize him. But Crowley does. Metraton tells the angels they don't have the authority to do what they’re suggesting, and he sends them back upstairs (minus Muriel) after they ask if they’ve done anything wrong and he tells them that remains to be seen.

Metatron asks Az if they can talk, and Aziraphale says there’s nothing to discuss, since his position has been made pretty goddamn clear. But Metatron offers him the coffee, goads him into taking it and having a sip. No one ever asks for death. He looks back to Crowley to figure out what to do (instinctual, heartbreaking) and Crowley tells him to go on. So he does. 

Muriel is still in the shop though, and Crowley tries to get her to go, he tells her that when Az returns they’re going to need “us time” (swoon, again), he says he wants to have an extremely alcoholic breakfast at the Ritz. He thinks the worst is behind them for now and he just wants to be with Aziraphale, and it’s just so dear. He gives Muriel a book and she leaves, and he sets himself to cleaning up the shop, fixing the bookshelves and covering the portal and messing about with Aziraphale’s chair, he’s anxious but he’s removing the obstacles in the way of his planned little trip. He just wants to be with the angel in a place that’s meaningful for them.

And then we see Nina and Maggie bickering a bit in the shop, Maggie wants to talk to Az and Crowley but Nina doesn’t think it will help, though she gives in anyway. They bust in on Crowley and tell them they have to talk to him, these girls are gonna call him on his shit. They tell him they’re real people, they aren’t toys to be played with, and he tries to defend the little charade that he and Az both had put on for them, but they don’t care. 

They tell him he needs to talk to Aziraphale. And he says they talk all the time, they’ve talked for millions of years. Except we all know that’s not talking, it’s not communicating. THEY’RE TALKING PAST EACH OTHER. They tell him that he needs to actually say what’s on his mind. And he seems to understand, finally. 

Woof. Okay. And then, Aziraphale comes back into the shop. And everyone holds their fucking breath.

Crowley tries to dive into it, he really does “if I don’t start talking I won’t ever start talking” but Aziraphale stops him because he can’t pick up on social cues?! Or how nervous Crowley is right now??! Or how serious he’s being?? I can’t.

It tumbles out of Aziraphale, he tells him that Metatron has asked him to replace Gabriel, because he’s a leader, and he doesn’t tell people what they want to hear. And Aziraphale resists at first, saying that he doesn’t want to go back to heaven. But Metatron pulls Crowley in, saying that their arrangement has been irregular, but if Az was archangel, he could restore his friend to full angelic status. The more you watch this part, the more it sounds like a fucking threat. And it is. Everyone asks for coffee, they never ask for death - Aziraphale took the coffee hesitantly, and if he doesn’t fully accept it, it really is death, but not for him. 

He paints a prettier picture for Crowley though, he seems to be excited and thrilled with the idea even though it’s not truly shining through. “You could come back to heaven and everything, like old times, only nicer!” Which Crowley hears as a slap in the face. Hears it as ‘I’ve been tolerating you but I’d really like to go back to the way things were’, hears it as a million different terrible things.

So he explodes a little bit and tells Aziraphale he’s better than that, “we’re better than that!”They don’t need them, they’re toxic.  He says they wanted him to be a duke of hell and he refused and fucking Aziraphale says obviously he said no to that, “you’re the bad guys”. My dude is choosing all of the wrong words. You’re gonna say “you’re” there? For real? Jesus christ. Because heaven is the side of “truth and light” and really baby, you are so far off the reservation right now. How the fuck do you truly think that anymore? 

Crowley tells him: “When Heaven ends life here on Earth, it'll be just as dead as if Hell ended it.” And it’s so crucially important but what he should have said was - ‘they’re not going to give up on trying to destroy everything and they’re tricking you into helping them’ but he doesn’t. And he’s so angry, he wants Azirphale to tell him that he said no, the second time he repeats it it’s so deflated, defeated, sad. But Az is convinced he can make a difference. 

This is where that familiar trope would come in wherein the character that was trying to confess how they really feel gives up, but I have to give this man credit, Crowley decides he’s going to power through it, he’s gonna say the things he needs to say, even if he already knows the outcome.

And everyone is still fucking holding their breath. Because poor Crowley is too, trying to get it all out. David Tennant is a beautiful disaster, huffing and stumbling and looking away and looking back. And it falls apart spectacularly.

“We've known each other a long time. We've been on this planet for a long time. I mean, you and me. I could always rely on you. You could always rely on me. We're a team, a group. A group of the two of us. And we've spent our existence pretending that we aren't. I mean, the last few years, not really. And I would like to spend...I mean, if Gabriel and Beelzebub can do it, go off together, then we can. Just the two of us. We don't need Heaven, we don't need Hell, they're toxic. We need to get away from them, just be an ‘us’. You and me, what do you say?”

How Aziraphale doesn’t crumple at all of this, I will never understand. Like, are you hearing what this beautiful demon is offering you? Maybe he shouldn’t have insinuated that you’d ‘leave’ together, he doesn’t want to go anywhere, not really but my brother in christ, he puts his heart on a platter all trussed up and still you’re not hearing him. Now would be a good time to tell him you don’t really have a choice, but oooh baby, you’re gonna lie through your teeth. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Instead, he asks Crowley to come to heaven and be his second in command (so fucking laughable) and insists again they can make a difference. Poor demon says “you can’t leave this bookshop” at that, and Az tells him nothing lasts forever. The girls had told Crowley to say what he’s really thinking, but he still isn’t doing it - you can’t leave me, you can’t leave earth, you can’t leave what we’ve built together.

 Hurdling onward, Crowley puts his sunglasses back on at that, he’d given his little confession without his ever-present protection, and he just says “Good luck.” At which point, Aziraphale makes a go of it himself, saying “Work with me! We can be together! Angels, doing good!” (and the ‘angels’ part is where he fucked up, he knows Crowley would never, ever, ever want to be an angel again). 

When Crowley’s not moved, he’s got one last thing, squeaking out: “I…need you!” and those are the wrong three words. We all know it. It’s there in his hesitation. And then he’s a little bit of an asshole, to protect himself: “I don’t think you understand what I’m offering you.” Which is essentially protection, a nowhere-near-perfect-but-maybe-it-can-be-enough way to be together.

Crowley tells him “I think I understand a whole lot better than you do” because that’s true, he knows neither of them would  be safe there, it’s a fucking TRAP, why isn’t he screaming it’s a trap?! I get it, he wants Aziraphale to say no because he should be enough, because Aziraphale needs to fully accept they’re on their own side for once, but the poor little one is not working off enough information, he hasn’t been. And It’s not fair to keep it from him, but here we are.

Sad little demon has to twist the knife a little bit, and he asks “do you hear that?” and of course there’s nothing to hear. He says, “No nightingales” and it breaks Aziraphale like it should. The song that had been playing at the Ritz when they toasted to the world. That was supposed to imply they’d get their happy ending. The words do what they need to do.

Has anyone breathed this entire time? How was I simultaneously holding it in and screaming at the two of them at the same time? Crowley waits a beat  and he says “You idiot…we could have been us” and I guarantee you there’s no air in the room and Aziraphale looks like he’s going to cry (or is likely crying already) and Crowley crosses the room and he grabs the angel by his lapels and

Crowley kisses him. 

Like he’s desperate. Like it’s a ‘hail mary’ that he knows isn’t going to work. Like it’s the last chance he’ll ever get. And it isn’t sweet, it isn’t tender, it isn’t a vavoom under an awning or a sudden revelation during a slow dance. 

Aziraphale looks like he’s in pain, and his hands flutter around a bit, one of them resting on Crowley’s shoulder briefly, he doesn’t know what the fuck to do, it’s not like it should be at all, and it’s fucking agonizing to watch. It’s a fucking gut punch. For them, for everyone.

When they break away, Aziraphale does crumple (as much as he can anyway) and then he says the worst thing he could possibly say. “I forgive you.” It’s the most devastating of the wrong three words he could possibly choose. There’s hesitation again, but he still chose wrong. No more Guardian of the Eastern Gate, no more bravery. Always wrong.

Crowley tells him not to bother, and then he’s gone. At this point, we need to give all the awards to Michael Sheen - Aziraphale’s face is a mash of anguish and anger and desperation and frustration and confusion and broken and he just puts his hands to his lips (so did I). Utter devastation.

We all know the rest: Metatron comes back and ushers Aziraphale out of the bookshop even though he does half-heartedly try to say maybe he’s changed his mind, it doesn’t matter now though, he’s done too much damage and he knows it. So he goes. And Crowley’s there outside, standing stock fucking still against the Bentley, staring through his shades. You know his eyes never leave Aziraphale, you know the angel can feel every ounce of it, and before he gets on the elevator he does dare to look back, but he steps in anyway. 

Oh, the grand plan, by the way? The one Aziraphale is perfect to lead? The second coming. 

Crowley gets in the Bentley once they’ve gone, and the radio plays him “A nightingale sang in berkeley square”. He lets it, briefly, then shut it off and drives away. The credits show their faces side by side, Crowley hidden behind his glasses but dejected, resigned, Aziraphale trying to plaster on his best ‘jolly good’ face. It goes on for minutes. And it breaks you.

And so. TFL;DDR (too fucking long, definitely didn’t read): somehow an angel and a demon hiding a amnesiac archangel in a quiet bookshop turns into a 6000-year-long love story that will rip your fucking guts out, make you believe in soul mates, shatter your emotional processing skills, hurt you in a way you can’t exactly define, and leave you in a puddle of goo, dazed and wondering what the fuck just happened. Or maybe that’s just me. 

I haven’t connected to a show like this in a long time. And I’m so grateful for it. Like I said, a love story, in the most beautiful and worst ways possible.