Voice to Text...
...and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
A friend of mine uses "voice to text." That means they click a button on their phone that lets them talk into it and translate what they're saying into words that they can then text. I've never used it but I should because my fingers have a tough time navigating the tiny keyboard on my phone. I wind up taking too long to edit a single sentence because I spell words wrong or other words replace what I meant to type.
Anyway, I woke up yesterday morning and saw there was a voice message from my friend. She'd sent it in the middle of the night while I was sleeping and the ringer was off. When I listened to the message, I was startled. She was on vacation in Europe and lost her wallet and credit card and could I please wire her some money so she could fly back home. She left instructions of what to do and thanked me. I was suspicious and called her back to make sure she was okay. When we spoke, she didn't understand what I was calling about.
It turns out that her voice message was plagiarized. The computer system that helps record and translate voice to text had enough data that it could replicate and create a whole new conversation. Turns out someone had hacked her system and called lots of people on her contact list making the same exact plea. A few people had wired and lost their money. And when we went to the police about it, they heard the message from MY phone and claimed they couldn't do anything about it because it was HER VOICE. Every word said was actually her voice, seamlessly edited to create a passage she never actually said in real life. She couldn't deny it was her voice and the cops arrested her on the spot. She's currently in jail for fraud.
Not really.
None of this happened.
But it could.
Big Ups to filmmaker Marisa Benedetto for interviewing me for this cool short film she made for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
“Dean Haspiel, Emmy and Ringo Award-winning comic book artist, explores the connections between superheroes and engineering and how popular comic narratives have inspired problem-solving and creativity. Imagination drives innovation!”
And here is one of three pieces of original art I created for a longer version of the interview called “Mantis Shrimp.”
The tenth issue of the 12-issue IMAGE! 30th Anniversary anthology comes out Feb. 15th, featuring the next installment of my Billy Dogma comic, “I Will Break You But I Won’t Kill You Because I Need You.”
I’m off to mentor comix at The Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida for 3-weeks. I had the honor and privilege of doing this a decade ago and I look forward to the new artists and new challenges we will encounter breaking comix — together.
And in a couple of weeks I will be launching a comix Kickstarter that I hope all of y’all will want a piece of.
Stay tuned—
—Dean