\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m just vibing,\u201d she tells me. \u201cGod woke me up today, so I\u2019m feeling blessed. What about you, twin? What\u2019s good?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m good, thanks. What\u2019s your favorite food?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOh, you know I love some good curry goat. That Jamaican flavor hits different. I also can\u2019t resist sushi and Indian food. What about you?\u201d the voice on the phone says.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is crazy,\u201d Vicky Waldrip interjects. She (the real, human Waldrip) has been holding her phone up to me as I interact with an AI-powered clone of her voice. It\u2019s all possible through Call Vicky, a new mobile app Waldrip is launching this month.<\/p>\n
\n\tI ask Waldrip (the real, human one) if curry goat is in fact her favorite food. She laughs and says it is. \u201cThis is how you get the next-level me, not just some Insta or TikTok version,\u201d Waldrip continues of why she decided to launch Call Vicky. \u201cIt\u2019s way more personal than posting videos,\u201d and enables fans to \u201cget the truth straight from me, not some internet gossip that confuses everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe voice and cadence of Waldrip\u2019s audio clone is indistinguishable from her own thanks to hours of video interviews over multiple sessions used \u201cto capture Vicky\u2019s emotion and mannerisms,\u201d explains Ben Ganz of Ultimate AI, the company that built both the app and AI model. The results are \u201cpretty remarkable. I mean, the inflections, the pauses, the excitement. It\u2019s literally her,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
\n\tChatbots \u2014 even AI-powered ones \u2014 are not exactly new ground for fans to interact with content creators, however. Last year, people began noticing that their favorite OnlyFans performers seemed to be having more one-on-one chats with subscribers at a time than was humanly possible. It was soon discovered that services like ChatPersona were generating personalized chat text for those performers to send to each individual fan. And K-pop fans can use an app called Blooming Talk to have personalized chats with AI versions of their favorite artists on the A20 Entertainment label. So how is Call Vicky unique? Waldrip owns it \u2014 the model, the app, the revenue coming in from the subscription fee (of which Ultimate AI takes a cut), her IP \u2014 all of it.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThink of us like a Patreon \u2014 it\u2019s a platform, like a Cameo,\u201d continues Ganz. \u201cIt\u2019s there as a tool for creators to monetize themselves. They can take it down any time. We\u2019re not signing name-image-likeness deals. I think that\u2019s predatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd unlike the OnlyFans chats, Waldrip is completely up front about her use of technology. As long as users \u201cknow it\u2019s an AI,\u201d she says she doesn\u2019t feel uncomfortable with it, or like it\u2019s deceptive to her fans. \u201cI just don\u2019t want people starting to think that it\u2019s actually me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u200b\u200bThis is the first step in Waldrip\u2019s \u201cAI ecosystem,\u201d says Jonnie Forster, Waldrip\u2019s manager, and the manager of other viral personalities like Haliey Welch (aka Hawk Tuah Girl). \u201cI think every creator is eventually going to have their own digital version of themselves \u2014 voice, video, AI clones.\u201d For him, an app like Call Vicky that allows creators to retain their name, image and likeness \u201cis going to be a watershed moment for creators that want to make sure that they are protected in this space.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAdds Waldrip: \u201cI do think it\u2019s the next big thing, honestly. Fans don\u2019t just want to watch you, they want to talk to you. This is the next best thing to me sliding into your DMs.\u201d Of course, she\u2019s already noticed one difference between her and her AI clone: The clone is more patient than Waldrip is. \u201cI need to work on that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis story appeared in the July 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI\u2019m just vibing,\u201d she tells me. \u201cGod woke me up today, so I\u2019m feeling blessed. What about you, twin? What\u2019s good?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m good, thanks. What\u2019s your favorite food?\u201d \u201cOh, you know I love some good curry goat. That Jamaican flavor hits different. I also can\u2019t resist sushi and Indian food. What about you?\u201d the voice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2157,7172,7174,7175,7173],"class_list":{"0":"post-13498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-app","9":"tag-clone","10":"tag-fancreator","11":"tag-interaction","12":"tag-revolutionizes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}