artificial intelligence {june 28, 2022}

T and I went to see Top Gun: Maverick. What a great couple hours of entertainment crunching on theater popcorn and watching Maverick's larger-than-life persona irritate the top brass with his over-the-top flying maneuvers and "maverick" attitude, teaching the new generation of Top Gun aviators and dealing with tensions between the pilots, beach football scenes, and references back to t he original Top Gun, particularly Goose's son Rooster playing "Great Balls of Fire" on the piano and flying with Maverick on the mission, and Iceman, now the Commander of the Pacific Fleet, who has Maverick's back and is dying from throat cancer.

Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015. He has spent the last seven years navigating a career-altering diagnosis, including a tracheotomy that left speech near impossible. The screenwriter purposefully interwove Kilmer's real-life cancer recovery story into the storyline, where Iceman communicates with Maverick by typing - save for a single line of audio, which was recreated from Kilmer's real voice using AI technology.

I recently read an article that Amazon is working on an update to its Alexa technology which would allow it to mimic any voice, including a deceased family member’s voice. Initial thought for me, I would not like this. I have memories of my grandparents’ and parents’ voices, my aunt and uncle’s laughs. They are treasured memories and to hear them coming from a digital assistant would be a little unnerving. I have photos and letters and memories to remember them. That is enough for me. (PS...I don't have Alexa).

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/23/tech/amazon-alexa-mimic-voice/index.html?utm_source=The+Flag+%28Legacy+Subscribers%29&utm_campaign=1cd9507861-Gas+Tax+Ask+-+Legacy+Subscribers_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4e552ab16b-1cd9507861-514480461