Nation already uses voice-cloning tool as OpenAI unveils Voice Engine

As San Francisco-based OpenAI just unveiled on Friday its Voice Engine tool, which can replicate people’s voices, in small commodity hub Yiwu, East China’s Zhejiang Province, people adopted a similar domestic artificial intelligence (AI) application to help engage with foreign traders in 36 different languages as early as in October 2023.

Voice Engine, a model for creating custom voices, uses text input and a single 15-second audio sample to generate natural-sounding speech that closely resembles that of the original speaker, said the company in a statement released on Friday.

However, business owners in small commodity hub Yiwu have already adopted a domestic Chinagoods AI Smart Service Platform in order to work as digital human anchors for product marketing or sales demos.

“We use Chinagoods for video translation and it can generate speech into multiple languages and reach global clients from all over the world,” Yiwu toy seller Sun Lijuan told the Global Times on Sunday.

With the rapid development of generative AI, digital avatars began to appear frequently in short videos, customer service and other fields, and livestreaming for sales becomes a scenario that cannot be ignored, experts said.

In addition to AI translation, Yiwu also provides other AI functionalities, such as AIgenerated online livestreaming hosts known as “digital humans,” who are capable of 24/7 online livestreaming at a significantly lower cost than real human hosts.

China now is in a leading position in the field of digital human technology applications, Luan Qing, general manager of digital entertainment and culture business at SenseTime’s digital world group, said in a recent interview with the

Global Times.

“Compared with its international counterparts, the development of China’s livestreaming and short-video industry has driven the rapid development of digital human technology, leading to an earlier and more explosive growth of digital avatar applications compared with overseas markets,” Luan said.