A voice over artist found out his voice had been taken when he heard a chatbot on a podcast using it.

In June 2023, Paul Skye Lehrman and his partner Linnea Sage were driving near their home in New York City, listening to a podcast about the ongoing strikes in Hollywood and how artificial intelligence (AI) could affect the industry.

The episode was of interest because the couple are voice-over performers and - like many other creatives - fear that human-sounding voice generators could soon be used to replace them.

This particular podcast had a unique hook – they interviewed an AI-powered chat bot, equipped with text-to-speech software, to ask how it thought the use of AI would affect jobs in Hollywood.

But, when it spoke, it sounded just like Mr Lehrman.

That night they spent hours online, searching for clues until they came across the site of text-to-speech platform Lovo. Once there, Ms Sage said she found a copy of her voice as well.

They have now filed a lawsuit against Lovo. The firm has not yet responded to that or the BBC’s requests for comment.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    53·
    4 months ago

    I did VO work for years. I’m out of the industry now, but I’m pretty certain that there’s no real point in getting back into it because most VO actors will be replaced soon. The voice that they gave ChatGPT with simulated emotional inflections has convinced me of that.

    I would probably be a little more protected because I specialized in characters, accents and impersonations, but really, for the most part, if you aren’t already famous as an actor, you probably won’t be getting much VO work in the near future.