Last week, many of you will recall that Persona, Fire Emblem, and Final Fantasy voice actor Erica Linbeck deleted her Twitter account after an altercation with a fan that used her voice in an AI-generated video without permission. The creator of the video accused Linbeck of starting a "harassing campaign" over a "dumb but harmless Futaba AI cover video", an accusation that caused her to leave Twitter seemingly permanently.
Now that a few days have passed, voice actors across the industry have been voicing their support for Linbeck on social media, calling out AI voice generation and those that use it to create videos without an actors express permission. One of the first to call out the original creator of the video and defend Linbeck was The Spectacular Spider-Man voice actor Josh Keaton, who was swiftly followed by fellow Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, who voices Insomniac's version of the web slinger in Marvel's Spider-Man.
Even before the Erica Linbeck situation, voice actors have been recently raising their voice in protest of AI on masse, letting anyone out there know that their voices are not to be used without their permission. Five Nights At Freddy's voice actor Kellen Goff is another person that recently shared their disapproval of the practice of AI voice generation, claiming that it should be illegal for anyone to use another actor's voice without them knowing.
Other big name voice actors in the industry that have also lent their voice to the opposition of AI voice generation include Paul Eiding (Colonel Roy Campbell in Metal Gear Solid), Doug Cockle (Geralt in The Witcher series), and Jennifer Hale (Bayonetta and Commander Shepard from Mass Effect), the latter of which called the practice "a violation of my legal rights and a real slap in the face".
All of these voice actors were found after a quick Twitter search, meaning there will be plenty more out there both large and small that are openly opposing the practice. It's with good reason too, as the common argument against the use of AI regardless of the art form is that it's essentially stealing, as it uses the work of others to generate new content. Unfortunately, it's currently legal to do so, but hopefully we see some new laws introduced soon that puts AI and those that use it so flippantly in their place.