Nourish Your Worth
Welcome to Nourish Your Worth, the podcast that is dedicated to helping individuals improve their financial well-being. Brought to you by CoLearning Books, our mission is to create educational resources that help elevate your financial literacy and self-care practices.
Disclaimer: The host is an owner and officer of Twenty Concierge Wealth Management, an investment adviser licensed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Nothing discussed in this podcast should be relied upon as investment or tax advice.
Nourish Your Worth
Innovative Solutions for the Voiceless: How Descript and AI are Changing Lives
Welcome to our podcast! This is Daniele, and today we're excited to talk about the amazing power of AI and technology to break down barriers and create new opportunities for people with disabilities. As some of you may know, I am currently dealing with a temporary paralysis of my left vocal cord, which makes it difficult for me to communicate effectively. But with the help of Descript, we were able to find a solution that allows me to continue communicating with you all and bringing you the content you know and love.
And speaking of breaking down barriers, we want to take a moment to spotlight the amazing performance of Rihanna's sign language interpreter at the Super Bowl, Justina Miles. She showcased the power of inclusivity and accessibility, and it's an inspiration to us all.
By using Descript and other AI technologies, we can create new opportunities and possibilities for people with disabilities to explore and grow in their fields. The power of AI is truly remarkable, and we're excited to showcase some of the ways it can be used to improve people's lives and bring greater accessibility to everyone.
So let's dive into today's episode, where we'll be discussing some fascinating topics and sharing valuable insights on a range of subjects. We hope you'll join us in breaking the internet with this one!
Show Notes:
Descript
Chat GPT
Justina Miles
See The Way I See Clothing
Innovative Solutions for The Voiceless: How Descript and AI are Changing Lives.
Daniele: Before we jump in today's episode, I want to let you all know that I'm currently dealing with a temporary vocal cord issue that is making it difficult for me to speak clearly. We found a solution that we think will work for our podcast. We will be using the Descript software to overdub my voice with a more coherent and clearer version of my words.
So, without further ado, let's get ready to break the internet from here on out the rest of the podcast, you will hear descript over dubbed version of my voice.
Kelli: Hello everybody. Welcome to Nourish Your Worth. We have a very special edition today. We're going to do some experimental stuff and we're going to talk a little bit about what's going on personally with us here at Nourish your Worth.
Daniele: Kelli, you know that I've been fascinated with ai and for our podcast, we've been using the software called Descript where it will learn your voice by uploading previous recordings. I had a surgery, and I am suffering from a temporary paralysis of my left vocal cord. So, of course, I should be worried about healing, but I am just fascinated with seeing if we can use this technology and overlay my voice and continue to move forward.
Kelli: I think we've probably mentioned a couple times on the show but we've just both been fascinated by the uprising of ai. And we’ve used services like ChatGPT, which is a hot topic these days, and Daniele has really thrown her hat in the ring over there and has been spearheading our use. artificial intelligence. And she's always got ideas anytime. I'm like we can't do that. It's not possible. Daniele's oh no, we just need to use a Python chatbot algorithm, blah, blah, blah. Amazing stuff. She's the head of our research into AI use. And so, this software that she's talking about, program or whatever you call an AI. She's been using it to edit our podcast and has been raving about it.
And she's always there's this feature we're not using that we can use in the future. That allows it to copy your voice and you can use it to fix if you have misspoken. Potentially you could maybe even do a whole podcast using this bot. And so, part of what we wanted to do is test that while Daniele is recuperating and like she said she should probably be resting, but you can't keep Daniele down. Can't keep baby in a corner.
Daniele: I want to remind our listeners that no matter how overwhelming or stressful life can be, there is ALWAYS an answer, all you need is a plan. As a financial advisor, I always stress the importance of having a plan to achieve your financial goals, even in the face of unexpected challenges. So, taking my own advice, when life throws you a curve ball, you put on your mask, dig deep, and make a plan. As one of my favorite quotes goes, “the only way out is through.” We may face obstacles and setbacks, but failure is never an option. Instead, let's turn those challenges into opportunities, and keep moving forward with purpose and determination. So, let's keep goaling, and inspiring our listeners to do the same. There's nothing we can't achieve with the right mindset and plan in place!
Kelli: Absolutely. I love that.
Daniele: So, I love this small business called, See the Way I See, where she creates these amazing sweatshirts with mental health mantras. So, at her latest drop, I bought one for myself that says, "I think, I think too much." So, in true Daniele form, there I am in the hospital room and all I keep doing is thinking, too much. And then there was my Aha moment as I was laying there in the I C U thinking, this is why Descript has come into my universe and we are going to use it to help me continue to get out our message and break the internet. And the best part is, I don't have to pose like Kim Kardashian with champagne on my booty.
So, I was watching some YouTube last night. Some things never change, right??? And some gentlemen were chatting on Bloomberg TV, and they were talking about how artificial intelligence is just like a co-pilot. We have a very lean team because we want to be able to focus on delivering high value to our clients and solving financial literacy inefficiencies in certain communities.
So having this amazing co-pilot, which is technology that allows us to not only automate things but be our co-pilot, and thus free up our time to be able to do what we're passionate about, is an exciting frontier.
Kelli: That's right. I think my favorite part of ChatGPT coming into our lives and other. is that it's taken away some of the tediousness that occurs with some of the tasks that we do where Daniele, you and I are both creative people and we as the two main people in our company we must do everything.
We have a ton of tasks and when you have this funnel of creativity, it can be seductive and fun and suck you. and then it can become burdensome. And it's like you have to write so many things and you start feeling like you're repeating yourself or worrying that you're not writing good enough stuff, or even thinking of the next thing to do, it just [00:05:00] becomes like a never-ending task list, which I think we all have.
I love ChatGPT because it allows you to cut through the noise in your brain that's holding you back from just getting stuff onto the paper, and just execute the thing that you want to do.
Daniele: What I love about it is it truly learns your Rhythm. It learns your thinking process, your diction, cadence, and unique style. All you must do is put in some work to tune it. Very similar to nourishing your relationships with your tribe, this is just a unique way and truly resonates with our message of promoting self-care.
We have been working together for almost 20 years, so there are different nuances you learn about one another throughout the years. Both good and bad. I feel like I know you very well and you can probably say the same about me. So, when you use ChatGPT and have a running "chat," you set the tone for the conversation, you give it feedback just like you would with a coworker. So, like Drake says, you go “zero to 100 real quick!” It's like having the best co-pilot around.
ChatGPT is a powerful language model that can generate responses to a wide variety of prompts. But what if you want to fine-tune the model to generate more specific and targeted responses? That's where tuning the chat comes in. To tune the chat, you'll need to provide ChatGPT with a set of training data that reflects the type of responses you want it to generate. For example, for our podcast we might provide ChatGPT with a dataset from our book, Financial Wellness, or previous transcripts of podcasts or blogs.
By "tuning it", it truly learns your unique style, learns your tone, learns the skills that you want to communicate and the teaching methods that you are trying to do.
So ChatGPT has literally blown my mind, but then there's this software, Descript that takes it to a whole new level for creators, and honestly for those who have literally lost their voice. I've uploaded 30 minutes of my recorded voice and it's learned my O G voice and so we're going to try to overlay the Descript overdubbed version of my original voice. This could be groundbreaking for those in similar situations that have experienced an unfortunately temporary loss of sensory or motor function by utilizing technology to allow people to move forward with their purpose. I am so grateful for the beautiful minds of AI and all the wonderful possibilities it brings to the ableist community.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! As you can tell, the Descript overdub has worked perfectly and has seamlessly overlaid the "mini mouse" version of my voice with the OG sound of Daniele.
Kelli: One of the things that just, you just reminded me of, Daniele, that I think is really fascinating. Is when you first lost the ability to speak and you were at a whisper, you told me that your Alexa had started whispering back to you.
Daniele: Yes. I laughed because I was struggling to make a sound and Alexa whispered back to me, I turned on whisper mode.
Kelli: That is really funny. But it also it speaks to what you were just saying about it learns your dialect, it learns your cadence, it learns all these things about how you're speaking. So, it's really listening to you in ways that people don't even consider. And I'm sure they're wildly different pieces of software, but. there's a piece of software living in your house. If you have one of these gals. I'll not say her name again. Lst, I wake her up. But there's a piece of software in your house listening to the way that you speak and potentially modifying not even potentially, modifying their behavior based off what you're doing.
Daniele: Actually, I didn't even think about that. I'm sure I could have loaded my voice from Alexa because I'm sure she has been recording me in the background. Thankfully, we had the benefit of our previous podcast recordings. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had 30 minutes of my voice to be able to upload because although I really fantasize about being an r and b artist, I am not and don't have hundreds of hours of vocals lying around in an archive.
By the way, I'm sure you watched the Rihanna half-time show. Of course, I was watching it on YouTube because I don't have cable TV and, on the screen, right next to Rihanna, they had the lovely young woman who was the sign language interpreter. Her name is Justina Miles, and she was AMAZING!!!! So, I immediately started thinking, OH MY GOSH! That's my calling, right? I'm the best hip hop car dancer and if my voice didn't come back, I'm throwing my snapback into the ring. I immediately texted my bestie Heather and said, where can I go and learn sign language? I just saw Justina interviewed by Gail King. She truly deserves all the accolades, a close second to Rihanna's killer performance, but she truly shined bright like a diamond.
Anyways, I'm really excited to see how this will turn out and see if we can use this technology to be able to continue recording our podcast. So, for the moment, we've put a pause on bringing guests since Kelly could easily deal with my mini mouse voice.
Kelli: I love it!
Daniele: But we are fast to find solutions and I'm not sleeping, we already know, I think too much. I LOVE TO SOLVE PROBLEMS! I solve financial problems for a living. And, not to repeat myself, but I believe that Descript showed up in our universe for a reason.
Kelli: I love that. And on the sci-fi angle, I know you're not a huge sci-fi fan, but I've got to go there. You are one step closer towards uploading your full self up into the big web of consciousness. And you're basically, you're going to be an eternal being. You're on the forefront of living forever by uploading your voice and creating a I don't want to say a deep fake that word's just in my lexicon because of too much social media.
Daniele: EXACTLY! That's what a lot of people are worried about, deep fakes, and you can't really trust anything. But me being the internal optimist, I think that this could be a way for artists who may temporarily suffer paralysis of their vocal cords, they can continue with their purpose! Because it all comes back to our wellness part of our book, financial wellness, is that we all need purpose, and we all need to have meaning in our lives.
And so, artists who sing for a living, that's their purpose! And if you take that away from them, it can be catastrophic to their ego and their mental health. So fast forward to today where they, of course, have hundreds and thousands of hours of their voices recorded, right? This technology can allow them to go on tour and continue with their passion and purpose.
I THINK IT'S AMAZING! I saw so many trolls attacking Rihanna on the internet. Oh, she's lip syncing! PLEASE!!!!!!!! She's in a huge open space. Of course, there's a voice track over her, they all do it. This is not Milli Vanilli! She is a well-established artist, bad ass self-made billionaire. Why do the Karen's want to tear people down? I'm over it!
Kelli: It's funny fact, Milli Vanilli is the first concert I ever went to.
Daniele: Oh my gosh. That is hilarious. Where was that concert at?
Kelli: Oh God, I don't, I want to say it was probably like the Forum or something like that. I was four or five. I think I fell asleep during it four, but I was a huge fan. Yeah.
Daniele: Sandy took you to Milli Vanilli?
Kelli: It was Rick. My dad's name is Rick. Funny fact, Rick, William.
Daniele: Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. You loved Milli Vanilli!
Kelli: You can imagine then like I, I didn't care that they were lip syncing at all. I was like what does that even mean to me? I'm not a purist. I'm four or five. I like to blame it on the rain, and then suddenly they were like pariahs, and I was devastated.
Daniele: I think that's totally different!!! I just don't understand why we don't lift everyone up instead of tearing them down? And who cares if she was singing over a vocal track???? It's impossible to get it to sound perfect in such a wide-open space and dancing while pregnant. The reality is they all do it!!!
LET THE HATERS HATE, RIHANNA!!!
Kelli: Absolutely. And I feel like we've gotten past this shock and horror of like R&B and pop stars at huge live events. Yes. There's a vocal track usually. It's, there are artists that do not, and usually that's like their whole, I feel like Lady Gaga might be one of those artists where she's but she's very upfront about, like her, the power of her voice being her tool, where like it's a different, I think there's different nuance across the spectrum and I just don't see the point of, particularly in a football stadium with all those fans up on a platform like you said. I agree that pregnant people should be given every pass possible for
A live performance like girls should, have been up there in a bubble bath. Although I think you're not allowed to do that pregnant, but you know what I'm saying? She needs some pampering.
Daniele: Exactly. I'm ready for the trolls to come after us thinking that we are deep faking this podcast. But I digress.
I just continue to be amazed at AI and how it is changing the landscape at a historical pace. I know that they were the fastest platform to get to a million subscribers. Now they're at a hundred million and they say that this is the biggest innovation since the industrial revolution. Couple that with everything else going on in the world, makes it for a very SCARY yet EXCITING time.
But for the moment, I'm of course an internal optimist, am just focusing on all the positive attributes that AI can bring to us in our work environment. To be able to serve the clients that we work with and the social community that we are building. And maybe more importantly, shed a light on the ableist community. and provide some hope on ways it can help them truly find their voice.
Kelli: Absolutely. I think it's amazing. We talk internally about accessibility a lot and about meeting people where they are. And the people who often get left behind are the disabled community because it's easier to design for able bodied people who don't have restrictions, right? It's easier to not have restrictions, but I applaud you for seeing the opportunity to reach into this community and search for potential solutions and probably change the landscape as you're doing it. And I also, I'm so grateful that you are sharing with us and opening it up and being vulnerable here. And so, I applaud you and I thank you for doing this today.
Daniele: Thank you. Be honest, Be Free!!!! I'm always going to commit to be my authentic self and am grateful of course for you and your support during this little hiccup. And we're always going to take our L's and turn them into wins.
Kelli: Absolutely. Just another step on the journey. And some steps are harsher than others, but we're still going and we're going to get there.
Daniele: All right, so if anyone listening hasn't dipped their toe into AI, you've got to check out ChatGPT. Go do a couple YouTube deep dives and learn how it can be your co-pilot in life and help you work smarter, not harder. And then move onto Descript since we have clearly turned this mini mouse podcast into a beautiful, albeit bot-ish, recording.
Kelli: Absolutely. Please do reach out to us if you have any thoughts on your experience with this episode today. And we'd love to hear from you and keep listening in for our what's next with our amazing AI I don't want to say assistants. Co-workers.
Daniele: Co-pilots.
Kelli: Co-pilots, our AI co-pilots.
Daniele: Yep, it's our co-pilot! And Kelli, what's our famous sign-off? Until next time…
Kelli: Continue to Nourish Your Worth.
