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
    563·
    2 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.

    • Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      281·
      2 months ago

      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.

      Time to start a Dungeons & Dragons podcast!

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        171·
        2 months ago

        Might have worked out for him, but I think people on Lemmy are tired enough hearing from me as it is. I’d hate to inflict myself on the general public like that.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
            10·
            2 months ago

            I think a lot about the fact that, on anonymous forums like this, any one of us that others have gotten to know over our time here could die and we’d never know. They’d just stop posting one day. I’m sure it’s happened to people I’ve befriended on forums over the year more than once. It makes me sad. I wish there was some good way we could let people we talked to know after the fact. I suppose tell loved ones to create accounts and make a post.

    • thefartographer@lemm.eeEnglish
      9·
      2 months ago

      Oh shit, really?? Any work we’d know?

      I never got any real work as a VO artist, but Lord knows I’ve worshipped those who have had some success.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        In one case, in the sense that you would know those characters, yes. In the sense that you would know the work I did with them, much less likely. When I was voicing those characters, it was for flash webstoons for the skeleton of the company that was about to close up shop and just become another arm of its parent company. I don’t even think there’s an online record of most of it. I also had very early success on YouTube long before you could monetize anything, so my voice was heard there.

        I’d say the other really big thing I did that people here might have heard my voice in was a PS2 game… but I don’t really want to dox myself any more than that.