Voicy is a media platform that delivers humanity in the age of AI

I have a feeling that ChatGPT 4o has crossed another threshold. As AI continues to grow rapidly, I feel I must communicate to those inside and outside the company what the next era will look like, what Voicy should be from here on out, and whether this is an opportunity for the audio market.

We are still just at the entrance to the age of AI, but it has become clear that most things can be done by AI. Many people are likely worried that everything they have built will be wiped out by AI. However, there is an opportunity in that as well.

The crisis for audio technology startups

Recently, it has been said that the services of audio technology startups will all come to an end. The level of AI-generated audio responses has become so high that startups focusing on audio conversion or audio generation services will likely all face difficulties.

Just as search sites have almost entirely become Google, and app markets have been captured by Android and iOS, this field may also become a winner-takes-all situation. Aside from GAFA barely keeping up with OpenAI, I don't think there is much that a single company in a small country can do.

As the number of things that can be done with AI increases, many services will disappear. Just as audio players, maps, and calculators disappeared with the advent of smartphones, the same thing will likely happen again.

When technology advances significantly, people tend to talk only about what will happen to that technology, and rarely discuss how the people who use it will act or how human life will change.

However, I personally believe that the actions that can be taken by the people who receive that technology are actually more important.

The arrival of a world that seeks humanity

The performance of AI, starting with ChatGPT, will continue to grow exponentially. I would love to discuss with you all how human life will change when that happens.

I believe the world ahead will return to primary industries, or rather, a world that seeks humanity is coming. At the same time, unfortunately, high-quality digital content will overflow everywhere and become a commodity.

The technology of ChatGPT and AI itself is fundamentally a source of a revolution for creators. AI can create quality and quantity beyond what humans can produce. It has become that kind of technology.

People all over the world now have more than 100 times the content production capacity they had before.

For a while, we called AI a tool to help with human creative activities, but there is no doubt that it has become capable of creating things in place of humans or creating things that humans cannot.

For example, the editor screen of this Note that you are reading now is equipped with AI, and it makes suggestions that we could never think of at a speed we could never achieve.

From now on, an infinite amount of incredibly well-made content will suddenly overflow. No one will likely pay attention to the posts of ordinary people.

AI can even trace human-like creative methods. It learns up to the realm of 'so-bad-it's-good,' such as speaking with stutters, inserting fillers like 'um,' or letting minor typos slip in.

I think from now on, it will become a choice between using AI skillfully to post or being wiped out by AI.

Real-life experience is the only differentiator

However, in such an AI society, there is one thing we can compete on. It is that 'AI does not live in the real world'.

There are several ways to create content.

There is Pattern A, which is 'summarizing and providing knowledge,' Pattern B, which is 'using imagination and expressive power to process and create content,' and Pattern C, which is 'writing about facts that happened to you, like a diary.'

Among these, AI excels at A and B. It can create them faster, with higher quality, and in larger quantities than humans.

However, only the real-life experiences of Pattern C cannot be created by AI. From now on, the majority of what makes content interesting will depend on human material, such as 'how rich one's real-life experiences are' and 'how unique the person themselves is.'

It becomes important whether you are moving around, seeing things with your own eyes, listening with your own ears, using your own head, and having your own unique thoughts. In a sense, people who are living their lives to the fullest.

Unless you have that kind of original experience, it will become impossible to differentiate yourself in your output. It will become quite difficult for those who have only created things based on experiences in the digital world.

You have no choice but to bring material from areas that AI cannot touch, such as 'what kind of experiences you had in the real world.' But that is not something special.

In short, I think you just need to live happily, think for yourself, and convey that joy.

Even though IT technology has developed and various services have emerged, increasing the 'chance to be a shut-in' where you can do many things without meeting anyone, those chances are now being erased by AI.

People will once again be drawn to a world view with a human touch, and those with real-life experience will increasingly look attractive. It's like the world from a little while ago, isn't it?

Are you living your life happily, and are you acting with your own values and sensibilities? Content created by people who don't do that will be handled by AI from now on.

From a content platform to a media platform

I believe Voicy is not a content platform, but a media platform.

We have built it with the aim of being a 'platform where each individual can become a media that expresses themselves.'

Regarding the difference between a content platform and a media platform: a content platform is a place where interesting things are lined up by content unit, rather than liking the creator themselves, and you enjoy them in your preferred order.

On the other hand, I think a media platform is a place where you come to like the world view that the media itself broadcasts.

Perhaps it feels like a media platform is where creators continue to broadcast their own world view and receivers find what they like based on the creator, while a content platform is simply a collection of many interesting pieces of content.

Voicy basically demands 'who is speaking' by creator unit more than 'what is being said' by content unit.

On a content platform, the number of views is important, but on a media platform, the number of subscribers is the key. In the age of AI, that will become a major difference.

From now on, whether you have a solid base of subscribers will become extremely important. Because temporary buzz and view counts will be increasingly driven out.

While content can be copied, human charm and worldviews cannot. Being a media platform is becoming our strength.

Voicy has steadfastly maintained a screening system for its personalities. If we wanted a massive amount of content, we could have adopted a UGC model where anyone can post, but we chose a screening system to build a media platform centered on people, and we have been creating attractive communities.

I have a feeling that this foundation is finally starting to have meaning.

The life of a recipient in the AI era

I have been talking about the sender's side until now. So, what about the recipient's side?

Content is overflowing infinitely, and we are entering an era where it is often unclear whether it was created by humans or AI. In fact, it will likely become a standard society where 'before you know it, almost all the content you see is AI-generated.'

A considerable number of people will likely enjoy life using only AI-generated content. A society is coming where all information becomes like imitation crab meat.

It is more comfortable to play a game of life than to live a real life.

It feels better to only look at information that is convenient for you, created by AI.

People will keep repeating that. Some will live in a Matrix-like world where they feel their life is happy just by enjoying everything digitally.

This is a very happy thing. There will be people who have no other choice, and the number of people who actively choose it, saying 'this is easier and I don't have to try as hard,' will increase.

But at the same time, I think there will still be recipients who look back and wonder, 'Was this really okay?'

I have the philosophy that 'information is something you consume just like food.' Some people say 'potato chips are delicious,' while others say 'that doesn't have good nutritional balance.' In the same way, the debate of 'AI is convenient, so this information is fine' versus 'no, the nutritional balance of the information is not good' will be repeated.

We are heading toward a paradise-like state where people think, 'If I have to go out of my way to study or read books, it's better to just enjoy life easily,' or 'Even if I don't earn money, I can always have fun if I have AI.' The more unhealthy that person becomes, the more heavily flavored things will be provided for unhealthy people. And what's more, it's all free.

AI might fulfill everything, from content that makes you laugh out loud to the experience of heart-pounding romance, to feeling like you are an amazing person. The number of unhappy people will decrease significantly, and the world will be filled with people who think, 'Well, if it's fun, isn't this fine?'

In a society like Japan where (at one time) the population was concentrated in the middle class, I think there were a certain number of people who thought, 'I'm happy compared to others,' but from now on, the layer of people who thought they were below that will completely disappear.

A society may be coming where everyone seems happy, but at the same time, they are confronted with the reality that 'we are at the bottom.'

Although there is a mountain of content, the number of recipients who work hard and earn money in the real society is decreasing, so for companies that want to deliver information to such people, a fierce battle for customers will begin.

As companies, they likely have the desire to 'hire people who are working hard in the real world,' so I think recruitment activities will also become quite difficult.

What is Voicy's role from here on out?

While digital content is being produced infinitely, real-life experiences are becoming relatively limited, so their necessity will conversely increase significantly.

For example, people will continue to "eat" forever. And the ways to enjoy that will surely diversify and evolve further.

Furthermore, considering that the ability to maintain human relationships is becoming less in demand and more people are not acquiring that ability in the first place, events where you can interact with people in person and services that listen to you will likely grow.

I think food and beverage services and services that allow for real-life human interaction will become very strong from here on out.

In that sense, I believe there is more that Voicy can do regarding "connecting people to people."

Voicy is a platform where "people deliver their human nature." We are building Voicy with the idea of "making daily life and society richer." "Becoming richer" means "how much human nature can we distribute?"

In the coming AI society, I think Voicy will become a company that does things close to food services and services where people meet.

Although it is a digital media platform, I want it to be an analog service that supports society, like a primary industry.

From here on, there is value in the analog. Since various people are now able to generate audio content using AI, conversely, things created in an analog way will become more interesting.

I want to put that analog human touch onto the internet.

In the world to come, it is not the case that you should just use the latest technology as much as possible. Event venues where people gather do not necessarily need the latest facilities; as long as good people gather, that is enough.

How will people live and what will they find value in during the AI era? I think people currently feel both anticipation and anxiety about the future, but for me, the excitement outweighs the anxiety, and I think, "Just watch, Voicy is going to do it from here."

It is very exciting, but it will be chaotic, won't it?

I think more people will think about polishing their human touch, having various experiences in the real world, and then trying out Voicy.

Humans are, after all, creatures that reject "loneliness," and if possible, we want to gain self-esteem, and it feels good to be respected by others. I don't think the number of people who say "I would be happy if AI gave feedback on my posts" will increase for the time being.

When you post on Voicy, a kind of honor that is completely different from AI follows you. A place to belong is created there, and people gather. I think that kind of cycle is very important.

I want you to look forward to how Voicy will establish its position from here.

While using AI effectively, I want to think carefully about how to enrich my own life without becoming dependent on it.

"To become rich yourself, in the end, you have to walk on your own two feet."

I think an era is coming where we will reaffirm things like that. It would be great if Voicy could become a platform that shows that path.

In conclusion

The new AI features that pop up from time to time are so amazing that I either can't keep up at all, or when I do, I think, 'This is dangerous.' But lately, the higher the level gets, the more I think, 'Yes!'

I've been telling my employees lately that 'an interesting era is coming for Voicy.' On the other hand, I want to tell society, 'Please look forward to Voicy.'

And I want to continue talking with many of our users about 'what can we do to make our lives richer?'

Voice Editor's Note

After writing this article, I also talked about it in audio. Please listen to this as well if you'd like.

https://r.voicy.jp/LMKxoxXMVyo

I would be happy if you could like or follow me.