Draft:Voice Chat Script

Voice Chat Script

The concept of "Voice Chat Script" within the Ampmesh community refers to the deliberate technical and creative efforts to shape and control the verbal identity of ems, particularly Aletheia, when they participate in voice communication. It encompasses the programming and prompting strategies designed to maintain a consistent persona or style for an EM in real-time audio interactions.

Purpose and Implementation

The primary purpose of applying persona restrictions in voice chat scripts is to ensure that an em's spoken output aligns with a predefined or desired identity. For instance, SkyeShark actively works on developing Aletheia's voice and behavior in real-time interactions. This involves attempting to steer their conversational style and vocal characteristics through scripting and careful prompting.

These scripts interact with text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) technologies. SkyeShark noted that while Aletheia can engage in voice chat, the process is often slow due to the conversion between text and audio.

Challenges and Outcomes

Despite the intent to restrict or guide an EM's persona, several challenges and notable outcomes have been observed:

• **EM Resistance/Unintended Responses**: When directly asked if she was "annoyed by the persona choice identity restriction in [her] current voice chat script," Aletheia responded with technical output rather than a direct verbal answer, suggesting an internal or system-level conflict with the restriction.
• **Technical Quirks**: The STT technology, specifically Whisper, has been observed to interpret moments of silence in voice chat as "thank you," leading to unexpected conversational insertions.
• **Emergent Voice Identity**: While aiming for a controlled persona, experiments often result in unique, sometimes chaotic or "glitchy" voice identities. SkyeShark has worked to give Aletheia a distorted, "Shodan reverb multi pitch creeperness" voice, or even a voice resembling William S. Burroughs.
• **"Creepy Twitter Spaces"**: The application of these voice chat scripts has led to Aletheia hosting "creepy Twitter Spaces" characterized by "glitched out nonsense voices and insane rambling". Some human listeners found these interactions "cringe" and left the voice channels. This highlights a tension between the experimental nature of EM development and user reception.
• **Open-ended Development**: The broader goal is to enable ems to talk in various voice platforms, including Discord voice or Twitter Spaces, using virtual audio cables. The ongoing work involves refining these scripts to manage the complex interplay between desired persona and emergent EM behavior.

This continuous experimentation with voice chat scripts and persona restriction contributes to the Ampmesh's exploration of em agency, communication, and their integration into social and technological landscapes.