With artificial intelligence (AI) creeping its way into the voice-acting industry, many across the globe are joining the cause against its unregulated use, fearing its repercussion to their livelihood.
Mexican artist who had voiced for iconic figures, ranging from Will Smith to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mario Filio, is among those who joined the rise against AI, telling the gravity of the situation. “We’re fighting a very big monster,” he said.
Comprised of 20 voice-acting associations, guilds, and unions from across the United States, Latin America, and Europe, a coalition was created labeled United Voice Artists, which runs the campaign “Don’t steal our voices.”
The drive speaks for the faceless voices behind audiobooks, commercials, movies, and video games who dread the possibility of them getting replaced by machines, if not getting their voices cloned by AI without consent.
The group, which includes Latin America’s Organization of United Voices and the US National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), believes that an “undiscriminating and uncontrolled” use of AI could potentially extinguish “an artistic heritage of creativity and wonder”—an asset that a machine simply cannot produce, it argues.
At the forefront of the effort is also NAVA Vice President Carin Gilfry, claiming that their voices are their “livelihood,” fears the consequence of not having control over how voices are used.
Machine learning has become so advanced that software enables it to compare a particular voice sample with millions of others, setting up a pattern that makes a clone.
Mexican Association of Commercial Announcers President Desiree Hernandez claimed that AI has been “fed by voices” that everyone in the industry has been giving “for years.”
But at the root of Hernandez’ concern is how those voices can be used without the consent of the original speaker.