Drop the mic!
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“Do you want to make money?”

Yes, sure. What’s the job?

“It’s digging your own grave.”

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the hottest topic right now in the world of voice-overs (VO). It might serve small purposes but it compromises the quality of important work, in which a voice actor is directed, directly or indirectly, by the client. In other words, the final work gets well done because a person gives instructions to another person in order to cause an action on the customer, interestingly also a person…

However, given the rapid evolution of voice-overs with Artificial Intelligence, there’s speculation about the impact it could have in the area and in the future, with the loss of work for voice talents, sound engineers, and studios.

One thing is for sure: to have synthesized voices it is necessary that… Well, that voices get synthesized. And it’s a little strange that a voice actor doesn’t mind offering his voice to platforms that will take his job away.

I don’t believe that a professional VO consciously accepts that his voice is passed into bits so that it can be used ad aeternum without him benefiting from it. I emphasize ‘consciously’, as I suppose some people who do voice-overs as a fun hobby don’t mind earning some extra money having their voice cloned because they don’t worry too much about consequences in the future for themselves and are not aware about what they are doing to an entire professional class.

I know, however, that many voice talents have been deceived in the past – perhaps others still are –, as they recorded voice-overs that ended up in Artificial Intelligence without them knowing they were doing so. They signed silent contracts that allowed this to happen.

I, myself, almost fell into this trap.

Four years ago I was chosen to record a Text-to-Speech (TTS), such a pompous and dubious concept. I didn’t know what a TTS was, but they explained to me that it would record gibberish sentences for a surprise client, which would then be synthesized for the purposes of scientific human voice research. I was told that the final work would not be public. I participated in several stages of the casting until the message arrived: you were chosen!

The contract arrived. I found that the client was a big, very big organization. The contract confirmed, in the first paragraphs, that my voice-over would be used for research purposes and that it wouldn’t be made public. But, some clauses later, in a contract that was, as they usually are, very long, unclear, and tedious to read, indicated that the fruit of my synthesized voice could eventually be used for public and commercial goals that were not foreseen at the moment… Even worse: several pages ahead, a clause clearly indicated that my cloned voice could be used for unforeseeable purposes like a computer robot sounding exactly like me was saying things I would never say and that could involve offensive and discriminatory language…

I didn’t sign the contract.

The client called me, alarmed, and offered an additional 33% payment. I refused. I explained that there were contradictory clauses about my work being made public and that I would never tolerate the clause that essentially opened the door to my cloned voice being used for offensive purposes unimaginable at the time.

I guess another person ended up taking the job. Was he aware of the possibilities this created? Did he read the contract thoroughly? Was he aware of what he was doing, or had he been misled?

Oh well…

AI VO?

NO.