“It was absolutely scandalous,” says Bos. “It was artificial intelligence.”
AI encroaching ‘everywhere’
Aspyr, the game developer based in Austin, Texas, didn’t respond to e-mailed questions from The Associated Press. But it acknowledged in a post last week on its website that what it described as “unauthorized AI generated content” had been incorporated into its Aug. 14 update of “Tomb Raider IV–VI Remastered” that angered fans.
“We’ve addressed this issue by removing all AI voiceover content,” Aspyr’s post said. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Still, the affair has triggered alarms in the voiceover community, with campaigners saying it’s a sobering example of dangers that AI poses to human workers and their jobs.
“If we can replace actors, we’ll be able to replace accountants, and a whole range of other professions that could also be automated,” says Patrick Kuban, a French-language voice actor who is also a co-president of United Voice Artists, an international federation of voiceover artists.
“So we need to ask ourselves the right questions: How far should we go, and how do we regulate these machines?”
Hollywood has seen similar concerns, with video game performers striking for 11 months for a new contract this year that included AI guardrails.
“This is happening pretty much everywhere. We’re getting alerts from all over the world — from Brazil to Taiwan,” Kuban said in an Associated Press interview.
“Actors’ voices are being captured, either to create voice clones — not perfect ones — but for illicit use on social media by individuals, since there are now many apps for making audio deepfakes,” Kuban said.
“These voices are also being used by content producers who aren’t necessarily in the same country,” he said. “So it’s very difficult for actors to reclaim control over their voices, to block these uses.”
Cadol’s ‘Voice Guardians’
Cadol says that within minutes of the release of the “Tomb Raider” update, her phone began erupting with messages, emails and social media notifications from upset fans.
“I took a look and I saw all this emotion — anger, sadness, confusion. And that’s how I found out that my voice had been cloned,” she said in an AP interview.
