I love listening to books in Amazon’s Audible app. Many of the voice actors dramatize the scenes so well, it’s like listening to a play. But times are changing, thanks to artificial intelligence.

Now you don’t have to ask Meryl Streep to come into the studio since you already have a sample of her voice. Audible can clone it with AI. But will the clones be able to perform the full range of characters? For example, when Jonathan Cecil read P.G. Wodehouse, he could convincingly switch from a young man’s role to that of an old woman.

Currently, Audible is only inviting a small group of US-based narrators to train AI to replicate their voices. But if this thing takes off inside and outside of Audible, we could be in for a modern version of Cyrano de Bergerac. Instead of writing love letters pretending to be another person, for example, you could ask an AI version of yourself to call someone for you, when you’re too tongue-tied to ask for a date yourself.

In other news, it’s now as easy to publish an Audible version of your book as it is to publish a paperback or e-book version through the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.  Amazon will provide a virtual voice for you.

How Big is Bitcoin?

Over 19.8 million bitcoins have been issued. That means we’re getting close to the 21-million limit set up by Bitcoin’s mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. Will bitcoin’s price go to the moon?

If you think so, you might want to invest in a bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund from a reputable brokerage like Fidelity, which is easier to use than a typical crypto exchange. Unlike CoinDesk and others, it doesn’t require a special alphanumeric key to get back into the system if you’re locked out. (Some have lost millions that way.) But other brokerages, like Vanguard, won’t touch it. They say bitcoin is too volatile. I’m somewhere in the middle.

In 2017, I used my first bitcoin to buy a sweater on Overstock.com, then wrote about the experience. But I soon became consumed by speculative fever, continually buying bitcoin as the price shot up. Eventually, it crashed, and I sold it. My tidy profit turned into a crushing loss.

But although bitcoin didn’t work out for me, it’s been a great help to migrants who send money back to their home countries. It allows them to avoid high transaction fees. Also, in some countries, bitcoin transactions may be the only way to prevent a corrupt government or bank from stealing your money.

Make a Masterpiece with AI

ImageFX, which is part of Google’s Test Kitchen, is my new favorite way to create a beautiful painting in seconds.

To start, search on “ImageFX.” At the site, type a description of what you want to create, whether it’s a photorealistic painting or a total fantasy. You can alter Google’s suggestion or start from scratch. To start, I altered their prompt, changing it to “fluffy clouds, forest, stream, realistic, enchanting, small boy.” What a masterpiece I received, in four versions.

Though starting from scratch often fails, I’m getting better as I go along. A string of nouns works best, such as “mountains,” “sunset,” “gymnast,” “stream,” “forest.”

To share your painting, tap the copy icon, then paste your image into an email, a greeting card, a Facebook post or wherever you like. Or you can click the download arrow to save an image to your computer.

Passport Renewal Goes Online

You can now renew your passport online at the State Department’s website, travel.state.gov, without having to mail in your old one– if you meet certain requirements, like having a passport that was issued between 2009 and 2015.

When you get to the site, click on “Get a US Passport.” Next, click “I’m an adult renewing online.” The State Department says the process is much faster now and requires less effort.

Scammed

Two of my neighbors were scammed out of thousands of dollars recently. A third didn’t lose any money but had to set up a new bank account.

Sometimes the scammer uses an email or text message, other times it’s a phone call. Beware of callers who pretend to be from your bank. If in doubt, go to your local branch and ask if they’ve contacted you recently. Also, delete any message that announces an impending debit to your account, or offers a much better interest rate than you’re getting. For more info, see PCWorld article: “Nine Common Online Banking Scams.” Among other things, it urges Windows XP and Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11.

A New Form of Wi-Fi

In densely populated cities, you’re lucky if your apartment’s WI-FI connection stretches to the next room, without a boost from a mesh network. But the new Morse Micro Wi-Fi HaLow reached 1.8 miles, even in San Francisco. In the desert, it achieved a world record, stretching a Wi-Fi signal 9.9 miles.

Internut

“China builds nuclear plant that can’t meltdown.” Search on that phrase to see a ZME Science article about an amazing breakthrough. China’s nuclear plant never gets hot enough to melt. After 3.5 hours, it only reached 870 degrees, a far cry from the Fukushima meltdown when reactors reached 2800. The University of Illinois at Champaign is working on the same kind of “TRISO-powered” microreactor.

Filed under: AI, Amazon, apps, art, crytpocurrency, Internet, security