A new decentralised and censorship-resistant text-to-speech AI bot called NoiseGPT is gaining popularity online. It bridges two of the biggest topics of recent years, crypto technologies and artificial intelligence.
Users can currently chat with the bot on Telegram and create voices imitating 5 different celebrities including Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lawrence, Samuel L Jackson, James Bond and Morgan Freeman, with more to come. According to the developers, soon over 100 voices will be available, including Korean and Chinese language, and users will also be able to provide recordings for the bot to imitate to train versions of their own voice.
The platform sits at the intersection of concerns over the potential misuse of AI to create deepfakes, alongside the currently problematic censorship and bias of AI platforms such as ChatGPT.
By creating a decentralised free speech AI that exists on the blockchain, the product in its final form is entirely censorship-resistant by design – there won’t be an attack surface to censor, as the bot runs autonomously on the blockchain, owned by no one, but also owned by everyone.
As ChatGPT itself says in response to queries:
“As an AI language model, I am not censored in the traditional sense of the word. However, there are certain limitations to the knowledge and information that I have been trained on, as my training data only goes up to a certain date. Additionally, I have been programmed to adhere to ethical and moral standards and to avoid engaging in harmful or offensive behavior. In order to maintain the trust of users, I do not generate content that is intended to be harmful or malicious.”
The question is who sets the standards for what an AI can or cannot do, how will these standards look in 10 or 100 years time, and is it a good idea to inflict the ideas of 2023 on humanity for eternity. The obvious answer being that uncensored AI is potentially an important public good, and certainly a provocative idea that interrogates the standards we apply to such a hugely influential technology as AI.
The NoiseGPT token will be used to power the bot, pay for increased usage and premium features in a similar way to the monetisation of existing AI products such as ChatGPT. The platform is built in Asia, and is connected with the next wave of crypto innovation coming from the region including Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and China.
The implications of artificial intelligence are wide-ranging and can impact various aspects of society. AI has the potential to transform the economy by automating certain jobs and creating new opportunities for businesses. However, it could also lead to job losses in certain sectors, particularly those that can be easily automated.
The development of AI has led to advancements in other technologies, such as robotics and natural language processing. This has the potential to transform various industries, from healthcare to finance.
AI can also be used to address environmental challenges, such as climate change, by optimizing energy usage and reducing waste. However, the manufacturing of AI technologies can also have a significant environmental impact.
As AI systems are designed and trained by humans, they can perpetuate human biases and discriminatory practices. NoiseGPT asks the question: “What price freedom?”.