Over the past several months, much has been said about the growth of AI and its potential replacement of workers across the entertainment industry. Once merely the fever dreams of out-of-touch executives, we now have AI art creeping into our games, and even Avengers Infinity War and Endgame director Joe Russo saying that an entire movie could be AI-generated in the next two years if the technology keeps advancing.
Writers and artists have been forced to defend themselves and their professions, making it clear that their work cannot be replaced like this. Many audience members would agree - it takes the charm out of any show, film, or game to have so much of it spat out by an algorithm without the understanding or nuance of human emotion. But the conversation has been muddied when it comes to the topic of voice acting. On paper, audiences are also against it. But in practice, many of these same fans are using it.
Persona 5 actor Erica Lindbeck recently left Twitter after she asked fans to stop AI-generating her voice. These fans, who presumably love her performance - given that they wanted to copy it in the first place - defended the videos, claiming fair use as they’re not making any money. This justification didn’t make Lindbeck feel any better. Nor did it please other actors who backed her up, many of whom have started finding AI generators of their own voices online too.
“I’m sure that they don’t see a problem with it when they do it. I mean, they’re not making money off it, so what’s the big deal?” Yuri Lowenthal, the longtime actor known for games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man, Fire Emblem, and Persona, tells me over email.
“Well, the big deal is consent. You’re essentially appropriating someone’s identity and making them do something without their consent, and that’s not okay.”
I ask if there’s a fear that fans could inadvertently lead to game studios stealing their voices too, but he says it “already has,” something that unions want to regulate. “If no guidelines or protections exist, then it always ends in exploitation.”
“Most voice actors already belong to SAG-AFTRA, and many of us have been on the picket lines since the WGA strike because we understand the importance of what they’re fighting for. It affects all of us.”
It isn’t just voice work either. Roger Clark, who portrayed Arthur Morgan through performance capture and voice work in both Red Dead Redemption games, says some studios are already trying to “amass a massive library of motion and performance capture data”, all without the actor's knowledge.
“Many gaming actors have already had to deal with and address having their facial data and mo-cap footage used in perpetuity by gaming studios, even for another game at a much later date,” Clark tells me. “Consumers deserve better than some Frankenstein’d performance.”
Clark doesn’t approve of AI work generated by fans either. “Purposefully misrepresenting another person’s work without their permission to suit your own wants or preferences is highly unethical,” he says. “It is at best defamatory and at worse theft.”
The fact that actors may not even be aware that it’s happening is another cause for concern. Cissy Jones, who has appeared in The Owl House and Firewatch, tells me how “panicked” she was to find fans using her voice on TikTok.
“That’s what is so scary,” says Jones. “We don’t know if there are any studios who just decide on a whim that they don’t want to pay us to come in for a session, so clone us and plug in the synthetic voice. How would we even know?
“I understand the fun of fan-made mods, I really do, but I would kindly ask people to put themselves in our shoes,” Jones continues. “Just because someone doesn’t monetize it themselves doesn’t mean that it does not devalue my work…The possibility to have my voice say words that would never come out of my mouth has massive potential to cause harm, both personal and financial.
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“If something they love with their entire soul was literally stolen and used for somebody else’s fun, how would they feel about it?”
Longtime Eggman voice actor Mike Pollock has run into this very issue with the Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase. For years, Pollock has made it clear that he won’t record custom Eggman dialogue with profanity, most notably the famous ‘I have an announcement’ copypasta which includes the line “Shadow the Hedgehog is a bitch ass motherfucker”. However, with the spread of AI, these wishes were ignored.
“The holy grail among some members of the Sonic fanbase would be to get me to record this highly-inappropriate monologue in my official voice. I had to make my own video explaining why doing that would be a bad idea,” says Pollock. “Not surprisingly, in recent months, several fans have put my voiceprint into an AI meat grinder and extruded a digital sausage of my replicated voice reciting the very words I refused to perform myself.
“If I leave my car unlocked in the street, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to steal it or its contents. My car, like my voice, is my property,” he says. “We don’t sign contracts with our fans, so they don’t have our explicit consent to use our voices...Please don’t fill our mouths with objectionable content. Or if you do, maybe consider keeping it to yourself.”
Pollock’s 20 years in the role haven’t protected him from AI use in the workplace either. When he tried to get a client to sign a contract promising not to use his voice in this way, he was told he could be replaced. He’s hopeful that the ongoing strikes will give actors better protection against this, empowering them to take ownership of their voices once more.
Many actors point out that it doesn’t have to be this way. They argue that it could be used as a tool to assist everyone’s work, not replace it. This just isn’t what we’re seeing in its current implementation.
“AI, like all tools, can be used with great care and precision or it can be wielded recklessly,” says Benjamin Byron Davis, who portrayed Dutch van der Linde in Red Dead Redemption through performance capture and voice work. “Ultimately if AI is used to replicate the work or likeness of an actor without their permission, involvement or remuneration that is beyond a threat to the work we do - that is bald-faced theft.”
Like others, Davis isn’t reassured by fans pleading fair use when using voice generators. “I get that fans enjoy telling an AI bot to sound like me singing a song, or would love to use an AI version of Luke Skywalker to wish their buddies a happy birthday - I just hope they understand that the tools they are using to create these memes and fan videos are making someone money. That money isn’t coming to me, and it isn’t going to Mark Hamill.”
He also disagrees with the argument that those who build the AI have created something that they deserve all the profits from: “AI doesn’t create anything. It repurposes the work of artists.”
Cissy Jones, like many of the actors I speak to, is a member of SAG-AFTRA, and is already on strike. She urges actors not included in the union (such as those who work exclusively in gaming or non-union anime productions) to stand with them regardless. “The potential for voice-over to be completely eliminated in favour of AI is very real if we are not careful.”
Jones also encourages any actor that is eligible to join a union before signing any new contracts. “If any company is found taking your voice and using it in a union project without first collectively bargaining the usage, and especially without payment, SAG-AFTRA has a team of attorneys at their disposal ready to pounce,” she explains. “Non-union actors do not have that protection.”
However, Davis says that executives aren’t willing to engage in discussions on how AI can be implemented while also protecting jobs. “Our union [SAG-AFTRA] is working with great care to develop guard rails that recognize the reality of the moment and the utility of the tech but protect the work and likeness of union artists,” he says. “It is dispiriting that the AMPTP [the trade association representing large companies] seems unwilling to entertain any sensible guidelines for how AI can be used.”
Lowenthal agrees, saying that there’s a “dialogue to be had between AI companies, game companies and actors,” but this doesn’t seem to be going anywhere right now.
Since speaking with these actors, Erica Lindbeck has returned to Twitter. Seeing the real, human impact that such a seemingly harmless tool has on actors seems to have swayed some fans. But on the other hand, you still have YouTubers reuploading the original video she complained about faster than it can be taken down again. With some fans unwilling to put this new toy down, it's unlikely we can expect them to show much solidarity if the strike results in any game delays.
It’s a learning curve that audiences will have to get around soon though, because AI is replacing us faster than we’d expect. What started as AI artwork in the background of smaller games has quickly blown into completely AI-generated Marvel opening credits and companies like Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft using internal tools to streamline work processes in favour of giving said jobs to human beings. Then there are those with jobs behind the scenes, which is also a major reason why SAG-AFTRA has gone on strike. They will be the first up for replacement if studios find a way to cut costs and make things easier for their bottom line.
In the backdrop of a labour dispute, just know that if you’re using an AI voice generator, you’re likely doing it without the actor's permission. Monetisation issues aside, Davis says these tools turn his craft into a “parlour trick”, and Jones says it “cheapens” her work.
With this in mind, it is largely down to fans to be the change they want to see. Many would be heartbroken to see these actors leave the industry, but as they fight for ownership of their voice and image, not respecting their wishes doesn’t put you on their side in this labour dispute. The industry will always go for the cheapest option it can get away with - we just have to make sure it can’t get away with this.