Martin Regley
01/26/2025 at 20:24Updated the 01/26/2025 at 20:24
In an interview broadcast in “Seven to eight” this Sunday evening, the former Patron of Sports of Canal+ is engaged on his fight against Charcot’s disease. It is because of the latter that he cannot speak, but thanks to intelligence, his voice was reproduced.
An overwhelming testimony. Of resilience first, but also of strength and passion. Reached by Charcot’s disease, Charles Biétry, former channel chief of Canal+ and president of PSG, is completely silent. “The words are in my head and I cannot bring them out,” explains the man at the microphone of Audrey Crespo-Mara who takes out his memories, “the last wave” at Flammarion. Breton, in love with sport and nature, returns for more than 10 minutes to his fight against the disease, who condemns him to die in “the next few weeks or even a few months”.
For the needs of the interview, his voice was recreated by an artificial intelligence. “It was out of the question that the disease, which deprives him of speech, prevents him from testifying if he wanted it,” insists Audrey Crespo-Mara to the Parisian.
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Written answers then given to an AI
For this, the former journalist, now 81, received questions beforehand. Thereafter, it was he who slept his answers on paper, before returning them to TF1.
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-The text was then passed into an artificial intelligence, which reproduced – it is disconcerting – identically the voice of Charles Biétry. For the software to capture and come out as close as possible to possible reality, the teams had to integrate many human audio recordings. It is thanks to this that artificial intelligence managed to recreate its voice as we knew it in the 1980s and 1990s. A technical feat.
Obviously, Charles Biétry has agreed to do so. And obviously, he likes it. “Does the voice suit you,” the journalist asks her. Quickly, on a computer keyboard, he writes “yes”. Then suddenly, the voice pronounces the word and Charles Biétry, of an inch in the air and a big smile, valid.
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There are many similar software to “clone” a voice using artificial intelligence. This is why on some videos – for disinformation – have been posted with the voice of Emmanuel Macron or former French political figures.
