Zubeen’s voice to be digitally preserved to prevent tampering, unauthorised use
Guwahati, Sep 22 (PTI): As Assam mourns the death of its ‘heartthrob’ Zubeen Garg, people close to the singer have begun work to digitally preserve his voice to prevent unauthorised use or tampering in the future.
Singer-composer Manas Robin, a long-time associate of Garg, said such digital preservation will ensure that his voice is not distorted or misused through AI-enabled or other technologies.
"With technology making massive strides, especially with AI-generated software, it is very much possible that Zubeen’s voice samples taken from the internet could be used by other singers/ performers as their own in the future," Robin told PTI at Sarusajai stadium as he joined lakhs in paying homage to Garg on Monday.
"We will work on preserving Zubeen’s voice digitally and creating such a ‘digital signature’ that the moment his vocals are played, its origin can be detected," he said.
ALSO READ: Thousands of fans bid adieu to Zubeen at Guwahati stadium
Garg (52) had died while swimming in the sea in Singapore on Friday.
His mortal remains had reached Guwahati on Sunday. His last rites will be performed with state honours on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday.
Explaining the concept behind it, he said, "If a person’s face is super-imposed on the body of another person digitally, it can be detected. Similarly, systems are being developed where the origin of a voice can be traced to its digitally preserved version of the original person or singer."
Robin, who is also a director and known for his folk songs, especially Bihu numbers, said Garg’s songs have already been archived, with the singer himself inaugurating one such archive days before his death.
"Digital preservation of Zubeen’s work is already underway through his YouTube channel and other internet platforms. We also want to put a ‘digital signature’ to his voice so that no one can pass it off as their own in today’s world of AI-generated audios and videos," he said.
"It will also ensure that no one can tamper with Zubeen’s voice," he added.
Robin said the death of Garg has led people to ‘rediscover’ his songs and creations, not just in the state but globally.
"This outpouring of spontaneous grief, this gathering of lakhs of people to pay their respects has made the world sit up and take note of what Zubeen Garg meant for Assam and why," he said.
The comfort with which Garg sang in high octave can be matched by only a few singers worldwide, Robin maintained.
“Singers sing in high octave, but the pressure it puts on their voice can be detected. But with Zubeen, it came naturally," he added.
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Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Hyderabad (PTI): The South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights here.
The move comes as flyers face significant disruption and long queues at the airport due to the cancellation.
A press release from the SCR said it is running the special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers to Chennai, Mumbai and Shalimar (Kolkata) from Hyderabad today.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 outbound Indigo flights were cancelled from here on Saturday, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport sources said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
Similarly, 26 incoming flights are also likely to be cancelled during the day, they said.
The flight cancellations drew ire from passengers, who thronged the IndiGo counters at the airport demanding to know the exact situation.
“This is utter nonsense! Digiyatra done, message received that departure has been rescheduled ahead of the scheduled departure and now upon arriving at Hyderabad airport coming to know at the security checkpoint that Indigo flight is cancelled,” Tarun Singha, former Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a post on X.
“But the thing is if you don’t shout they do nothing. Example at Hyderabad Airport, there was no staff no flight information for an hour. Then a fellow passenger started shouting on mic and an Indigo staff appeared finally,” a netizen said in a post.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, its CEO Pieter Elbers apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
