225. How speakers can make the most of AI
AI is coming whether you like it or not.
In this episode the Digital Speaker and self-titled Optimistic Dystopian Dr Mark van Rijmenam shares how speakers can make the most of AI.
Tune in for this fascinating chat and learn how you can use AI to stay ahead of the pack!
Transcript
Hello, Merry Christmas! For those who celebrate, what are you up to? Patrick and I will be home in Brisbane. We've got lunch with his fam dinner and drinks with my mom and sister. And then we are off to Singapore for New Year's. So you might remember in episode 219, I shared five ways to stop AI stealing your speaking gig. Today we are looking at the other side of it, which is how speakers can make the most of AI. And I have a global expert in this field on That Voice Podcast. It's very exciting. I heard him speak at the Global Speaker Summit in Bali this year. He's known as the digital speaker, and his name is Dr. Mark van Rijmenam. Our conversation is at times quite terrifying, at all times very fascinating and full of practical tips for you to embrace AI because hey, there is no stopping it.
Sally:
It is such a joy to have you on That Voice Podcast. Thanks for joining me. How are you?
Mark:
Oh, it's a pleasure to be on your show, Sally. I'm very good enjoying the beautiful weather in Sydney.
Sally:
Amazing. I heard you speak in Bali at the Global Speakers Summit, all about AI, and it has me completely terrified and completely inspired. So how is AI disrupting the speaking industry?
Mark:
Wow. Well, AI is disrupting everything we know and do in our society. So by definition it'll disrupt the speaking industry as well as speakers. There are multiple ways how we can use AI to, to make our our work better, to make our work easier to offer a better story to our, to our audience. Just like in every industry where leaders need to embrace artificial intelligence to stay relevant, I think speakers also need to do so. And if we look at how AI can impact the speaking business, you know, what I shared at the Global Speaking Summit, three ways, you know, pre-stage at the moment before you go on stage. So all the work that you do until you you know, you arrive on stage from your research where AI can help to your outreach, where AI can help to crafting your messages, crafting your articles all those kind of ways where AI can really have a big impact on making your work better more efficient, more effective.
Mark:
Then you can use, obviously on stage where you can you know, you, I see holographic keynotes becoming a thing. They become cheaper now where you can just present physically, but digitally from anywhere in the world, which I think is really fascinating because it, it sort of opens up a whole new, new way for speakers to, to, to, to speak anywhere well being and anywhere. And I think in the years to come, that will sort of, you know move even further when we have augmented reality glasses that are good enough. So I can, you know, appear in your kitchen as a life like Mark, holographically through augment reality, deliver my talk on a one-to-one basis adjust automatically using AI on who you are and what your preferences are. So I think that is a really powerful way of how AI will change the speaking industry.
Sally:
It's taking away the speaker, speaking to the audience, and actually personalizing for each member of the audience.
Mark:
Yes, and, and the reason why I think that's really important for speakers is because with AI having such a disruptive impact on society, I believe that, you know, AI will, will destroy at least a billion jobs by the end of this decade. You know, organizations will become flatter maybe have less requirements of, you know a keynote speaker for, you know, the top 250 or the top hundred, the number of gigs, the high paying gigs would probably reduce. But then in return for that, we maybe get like you know, one-to-one gigs where you pay, I know $20 when you receive $25 for a one to one gig. But it's all automated. It's all driven by AI, and you don't do one, you do a thousand or, or 10,000 or whatsoever and you achieve your objective through that that means I think that's a fascinating area, that it's an area that I've been exploring for quite a few years now. I'm the digital speaker after all and I think it offers a lot of opportunities. If I can have you, for example, in my kitchen talking to me about, you know, about how to use my voice. And I don't have to go anywhere, but you can come digitally to me helping with my story while you might be on the beach in Queensland. You know, I think that's that's pretty exciting.
Sally:
Yeah. So it might be a silly question given what you do, but are you afraid of AI or excited by it?
Mark:
I am excited and frightened by it. So it's a combination of both. I'm also, you know, I consider myself an optimistic dystopian, which is a bit of a bit of an oxymoron. But iit helps me to have a true opposing viewpoints in my head to sort of understand what, what's going on, because I believe that if we wanna end up in a thriving digital future, we need to understand the risks that these technologies bring so that we can mitigate those risks so that we can end up in the future that we want. And, you know AI has tremendous opportunities for society to make our lives so much better from a healthcare perspective. It can help detect cancer way earlier help solve diseases, help solve climate change, change education and equalizes across, across the globe.
Mark:
But at the same time, the risks of AI are significant as well. And I'm not necessarily talking about an existential risk, but I think before we reach that stage we can already do enough harm to society that we might not even need such an existential event because it's we already ruined it for ourselves. And that I'm talking of course about, you know, the rise of deep fakes, the rise of misinformation, you know, spams you know bullets and trolls that are ruining the internet that is really, really problematic. You know, you are a Nigerian prince now, also speak 35 languages fluently and knows you inside out and knows you probably better than you know yourself.
Sally:
Yeah. So what's stopping someone taking a speaker's voice, taking their image and creating a deep fake and then selling that, even putting words in their mouth, we already see this happening.
Mark:
Yeah, yeah. Well, this is absolutely anyone can do that. And especially as speakers, we have all of our content online. So it's very, very easy. A good example is what happened only a few days ago. It was with the with the launch of Starship by Elon Musk which was caught by the chopsticks, you know like an amazing feed of engineering.
Sally:
Caught by the chopsticks. Yeah, I know. It was amazing footage, wasn't it?
Mark:
Yeah, I'll start watching it. It's not like really amazing field, you know, field of engineering. You can say whatever you you wanna say about Musk and to a lot of degrees. I agree on that. But this is like amazing what he does to humanity. For humanity. It
Sally:
Went back into the dock, kind of like one of those Roomba vacuum cleaners that recharge!
Mark:
I know it's, it's pretty insane. But it was also happening at the same time. There was a video on YouTube, a live stream where they mimicked Elon Musk as if he was standing and was presenting the launch of Starship, but instead of presenting the Starship launch, he was talking about a crypto that he was giving away, or, you know, what, something that he was, was pushing, you know, it looked real and 50,000 people were watching. While it was completely fake. That's the reality nowadays. You know, it's mean. You know, I think I read an article and I published it on my website yesterday that the department of of defense in America now wants to create deep fakes that are indistinguishable from reality. And they wanna do that to sort of infiltrate on social media, sort of as a spy, what can possibly go wrong.
Mark:
You know, it's really problematic. And, and I think, yeah, as a speaker with our content, all our content online or images online, our videos online, our voice online, you know, criminals have everything they need. It's already difficult for the Elon Musk of this world to stop that. So let alone, if it would, how difficult it would be for us to stop it if it happens to us. And this is especially relevant for Australia, that makes me, you know, extremely angry, that if you call the ATO and the first message to hear from the ATO is in Australia, your voice identifies you. Well, hello. I need three seconds of your voice, Ellie, and I can be you. Well, I call the ATO, it blows my mind that, that the Australian government hasn't stopped that They force you to create a voice recording because it's so secure. Well, it's not secure 'cause I can clone anyone's voice with three seconds of their voice. I only have to call you and say, hi, it's Sally and I have enough data to clone your voice. And I can probably find your date of birth online. I can probably find your address online. I can probably find other personal identifiable information about you online. And then I have got everything I need to call the ATO and be you.
Sally:
Yes, please call them, tell them to stop chasing me.
Mark:
It remarkable that, that nothing happens about that nobody's doing something about this.
Sally:
What they say with a voice print is that it uses, you know, more than 200 different markers that make your voice your voice. Can they tell the difference between human and ai or are you saying they can't and that's the problem?
Mark:
No, you can't. AI is becoming that good nowadays that, that you can't. And they've done, there's quite quite a lot of research on the internet already, where people, journalists clone the voice, they call their friends and, and their friends had no idea. It's difficult. You're busy with your life, you're doing other stuff at the same time. So you're not paying a hundred percent attention to the voice that you're hearing you're doing. You might be driving a car, so you, so you, I don't know, this is a number I'm making up now, but you miss like 80% of the 200 markets, you know because you're just not paying attention to it 'cause you're sort of on autopilot. That's where things go wrong. You know, the CEO of Ferrari called one of the directors of Ferrari and, and told the gentleman to transfer money for, to pay an invoice.
Mark:
And after a while on the phone, the director was like, Man, this is something odd about the voice of the CEO. And then he said he did the good thing and the brave thing, and he said I forgot the name of the CEO, but he said, Mr. CEO, I'm sorry, but I need to stop you here. I need to identify you. What was the book that you gave me last week? And obviously the person on the other line hang up straight away because it was a criminal. If we want to achieve that you as an employee have the guts freedom to challenge your superiors, if you are in doubt that you are indeed being called by a superior, that you can say, I'm sorry, stop. I need to identify you. In many cultures, probably like 95% of the organizations, that's a not done thing. You know, you're not gonna go against your superior, you're not gonna tell your CEO as a middle manager, I'm sorry Mr. or Mr. CEO, I need to identify you. But we need to have that changed because, you know, it's too easy nowadays to commit fraud.
Sally:
Yeah. It's so interesting. We need that cultural communication change, but also that does rely on there being some kind of personal relationship like your bank who may not know you cannot ask those identifying questions because every question they would have, the AI would also have, they can't be saying, you know, what was the dress I bought you last week?
Mark:
Well, they could probably look into your transaction rejection accounts, but that's a different story.
Sally:
Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. You know. Oh, so now that we're sufficiently terrified as a speaker right now, what are some of the things that we can do to keep pace, stay relevant, embrace the AI in our businesses?
Mark:
I think it's really, really important to we to educate yourself to be aware of what's happening, to experiment with the different technologies that are out there and to start, you know, executing on that and integrating it into your business. Yeah, you snooze, you lose.
Sally:
I love that quote that you shared in the future. That'll be two types of businesses, those that embrace AI and those that don't exist.
Mark:
If we don't use ai you will not be able to keep up with someone who uses AI to promote the message, create content to deliver a better product, and then you'll not be booked anymore. We need to integrate AI in everything that we do so that we can stay ahead of the pack.
New Speaker:
This is a great spot to remind you. It doesn't matter what you say or to who you say it to, if you are not connected to your voice, people can feel it. This is why you need the Magnetic Voice Formula. If you're a Soul Speaker, it's in the portal. If not, link is in the show notes.
Sally:
And what are some things that you think AI can never replace when it comes to speaking?
Mark:
A few years ago I said, that will be creativity. Well, I had to come back from that because I think, you know, AI can be quite creative. You know, it can create songs, it can create art, it can create images, it can create videos. Back to the question, you know, what is creativity and to what extent do you define that? I would say empathy. But then again, you know, AI can be probably a lot more empathetic than as humans because it has its full attention to you. It can see all the macro expressions that you and I can't really consciously see. It can know everything that you said to me last week, which I might have long forgotten. It can hear the fear in my intonation that you might not hear. It can be a lot more empathetic than I can be. So that doesn't really work. You know, more social jobs, you know, hospitality or, you know, age care facilities where, you know, the human connection is really, really important. Not only in empathetic empathy, but also physical. But then you see the humanoids today and you think, Well, I can, I can see it happening that there will be aged care facilities that are run entirely by humanoids, that one human.
Sally:
Yeah. They're saying that they're now able to create like a companion. And I know I love going to my local Japanese because we do get it delivered on the little robot.
Mark:
Yeah, no, there you go.
Sally:
I kind of prefer it to the waiter.
Mark:
There you go. You're contributing to the, to the humanoid revolution coming our way, Sally. That's a dangerous thing.
Sally:
Oh, yes. You know, I see myself as quite balanced. I am a Libra, right? Talking as Astrology and I feel like I wanna bring as much human and also embrace the technology because as you say, we can't put our heads in the sand with this.
Mark:
No, I agree. We have to be you know, open to it and we have to understand what's happening.
Sally:
So how are you using AI in your business?
Mark:
Well, I use it in everything I do. I use it in creating my presentations. I use it in my research. I use it in my search engine optimization. I use it in writing stories, reaching out to people, probably four or five taps open with chat GPT in different chat windows. You know, I'm using it all the time.
Sally:
Amazing. So you still can't think of anything that AI is not going to replace?
Mark:
Oh reproducing humans and although they might find a solution for that at some point with the plummeting birth rates at the moment.
Sally:
Well, let's bring it into speaking. Like, do you think that there will always be a need for a human to be on stage speaking in front of other humans?
Mark:
I do think there will be a premium on human connections, and I think this will apply to all industries. If I pay the low fee, I get a call center agent that's an AI. If I pay a bit more, I get a human. If I go to a retail store or an online retail store, I'm helped by a robot unless I pay more or less. It's a luxury brand than I'm helped by a human. I think for the speaking business, there will always be a need for human connection. I think having a humanoid on stage will be a gimmick for quite a while, but I don't think it would replace as humans. So there you have it, you know, our industry is safe, but we have we, I think we need to, we need to be adaptable to the changes. But I think that for a long time, you know, there's always a need for a human on stage who can tell an inspirational story.
Sally:
Oh, Mark, that's what I love to hear. More optimism, less dystopian. Okay. Was there anything else you'd like to add?
Mark:
Regardless of your role, regardless of your industry, we are all futurists. We are all building the future. We should embrace and we should be empowered to understand that the actions we take today will help create the world of tomorrow.
Sally:
Oh, fantastic. And how can people find out more, more about your books, your work? How can they connect?
Mark:
Well, I'm pretty visible online. There's only one Mark van Rijmenam in the entire world. And you can find me on the digitalspeaker.com.
Sally:
Amazing. And I'll put all those links in the show notes as well. Dr. Mark, thank you so much for coming on That Voice Podcast. What a fascinating discussion.
Mark:
Thanks for having me.