AI VA / TTS: Two Years Later [Thoughts]

Let’s briefly recap the events.

I opened the website in 2018, initially without a related YouTube channel. The videos and streams were and are still located on my personal one. Five years ago, I opened the channel dedicated to FlyAndWire. Little changed in terms of modus operandi. But you know how life is: family, work, and other obligations tend to erode one’s spare time. In some cases, it grinds to almost nothing. This is where the AI TTS initially came in. Recording in the middle of the night when everyone’s sleeping is not, in fact, a great way to have a clear and understandable output. Complaints increased, especially from the American viewers, probably because they are not as used to accents as we are on this side of the Atlantic. An AI VA solved the issue, since they are robotic of course, but vastly cleaner.
For a brief period, a friend, GhostDog, kindly offered his help, and he recorded a few videos around the period when the Phantom was released. All went well until things got even worse: you see, when collaborating with others, especially, VAs, the assumption is that the script they should read is finalised and polished. Unfortunately, I was unable to ensure such a minimal level of consistency. Nowadays, I tend to put articles together and then add, remove, correct bits and pieces whilst I am putting the video together. This is not a feasible modus operandi when working with other VAs. And so, I had to go back to full AI TTS.

Now, there are some points I would like to clarify:

• In primis, no content here, not even a line of text, sketch or image is AI generated.
• The AI VA is a means of transforming the articles I write into audio. This serves as a complement to text, game footage and animations, not the other way around.
• As time-consuming as it is, video format still has a certain number of advantages. For example, I can add animations to a video, show how the radar antenna is manipulated in certain scenarios, how a target can be intercepted using only the Radar Warning Receiver of the F/A-18C. I am raising this point just to invite you to read the Q&A with ED about the new RWR tech behind the SPO-10 and -15.
• You may have noticed that I had the AI VA read historical articles as well. Although there is little to see there, I thought it could be nice to have them, something akin to a podcast if you will. That’s because I listen to interviews and documentaries whenever I can and especially when I am physically-but-not-mentally busy, so to speak.

You know, before my work on the Tomcat, not many understood the finesses of the simulation, especially the back seat. For instance, topics such as the TID in Aircraft Stabilised mode or the DDD. Before my work on BVR Timelines and intercept geometry, not many were talking about it, not in such a detail. Before the tests of missiles and lofting, not many considered it as an option, and fewer realised how impactful it is. I think what I did for the Phantom II is an OK entry-level analysis of its air-to-air capabilities and tactics, although there is so much more I would love to cover. I just don’t have time. To put things into perspective, I have not had time to commit to a properly planned mission in the las 5 years. 2020 was the last time I managed to do that.

So, dulcis in fundo, I’m quite happy of what I put together in the last 7 years. And, when people labels work as “AI-generated slop”, well, it’s a bit pathetic. Unfortunately, I do not have a solid solution to address the AI VA problem. I may move back to my native language perhaps, but English is de facto the lingua franca, ergo such a move wouldn’t be useful. Besides that, I could lock all content behind Patreon and YouTube memberships, shoutout and a huge thank you to all the kind folks on those platforms and elsewhere that help maintaining FlyAndWire alive. That being said, I am a firm believer in sharing knowledge and information, so that would be only the last resort.