The BBC and the Daily Telegraph have taken up this reconstruction based on artificial intelligence.
by Eric Albert (London, Correspondence)
To finish his one -hour newspaper between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., Radio 4, one of the BBC channels, chose Thursday, January 19, to return to the reconstruction of the June 18 call of the general of Gaulle produced by MO12345lemonde. “In this program, we really like to be interested in everything that comes from artificial intelligence,” explains the presenter, Evan Davis. To interest its listeners, he offers them two extracts: one coming from a real registration of General de Gaulle, the other being the work carried out by MO12345lemonde. “I am not telling you which one is the real, I let you listen,” explains Mr. Davis.
This reconstruction, published by “MO12345LEMONDE” Wednesday, January 18, is the culmination of an investigation by journalists Charles-Henry Groult and Benoît Hopquin. Knowing that there is no recording of the famous call, they wondered if it was possible to reproduce it, using artificial intelligence, which today makes it possible to “clone” a voice. They asked for this the help of the Research Institute and Acoustic/Music Coordination (IRCAM), which masters this technology.
But to achieve this, three elements needed. First, at least 30 minutes of registration of General de Gaulle, which did not pose any problems, the BBC having retained many other speeches that it delivered during the Second World War. Then the exact text was necessary. But the latter has disappeared, and the recording of a call read on June 22, often resumed, is not exactly the same. Finally, thanks to the research of an amateur historian, an archive of the Swiss secret services which exactly taking up the text, but in German, was unearthed.
French translation has been read by historians to stick as much as possible to reality. Finally, an actor had to read the text, to give it the right intonations. The actor François Morel agreed to lend himself to this game. Then, the computers did their job and produced a posthumous “recording” of the June 18 call of just under four minutes.
The presenter was mistaken
To talk about it, the BBC therefore chose to broadcast two speeches. The first, strangely, dated from June 1960, and was devoted to the Algerian war. The second takes up some of the best known lines of the call on June 18: “Certainly, we were, we are, submerged by the mechanical, terrestrial and air force of the enemy …” For a French -speaking, it was obvious that The second extract was reconstruction. But the presenter Evan Davis, when concluding, was mistaken, first indicating that the second was a real recording, before finally recovering. “This is an example showing how much artificial intelligence works well.”
You have 15.9% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.