Gaming IndustryBaldur’s Gate 3Baldur’s Gate 3 actors tear into AI voice cloning: ‘That is stealing not just my job but my identity’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming IndustryBaldur’s Gate 3Baldur’s Gate 3 actors tear into AI voice cloning: ‘That is stealing not just my job but my identity’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Larian Studios)
Eurogamertook to the red carpet at the BAFTA awards to check in with the voice actors behind Baldur’s Gate 3 and some of the other big games of 2023, and despite the buoyant mood at the show, they all had concerns and harsh criticism for AI voiceover tools—especially unauthorized reproductions of their own voices.
BG3 narrator Amelia Tyler described coming across multiple instances of her already-iconic performance being replicated through AI, including for upsetting and unseemly purposes: “I went on to this stream because somebody gave me a heads up, and I went on and heard my own voice reading rape porn.
“That’s the level of stuff we’ve had to deal with since this game came out and it’s been horrible, honestly.”
Tyler said that such use of her voice “is stealing not just my job but my identity,” and that while she loves videogame mod scenes, “to actually take my voice and use it to train something without my permission, I think that should be illegal.”
Raphael actor and best supporting performance winner Andrew Wincott quipped to Eurogamer that, while he appreciates the potential of doing 10 hours of work for 40 hours of output, he still expects to be paid for the full 40. Both Wincott and Samantha Béart, who played Karlach in BG3, expressed trepidation about potential contractual abuses of AI performance cloning, even in the face of SAG-AFTRA’s recent contract.
Actors from other games, like Alan Wake 2’s David Harewood and Final Fantasy 16’s Ben Starr and Ralph Ineson, are similarly wary of the tech. Neil Newbon, who voiced Astarion in BG3, seemed more optimistic due to the sheer gulf in quality between AI copies and real actors’ performances, hoping that good taste will win out: “I know a lot of people in the games industry that would like to work with an actor because of what we bring, the craft we bring.
“I don’t think you can program craft. It’s something beyond zeroes and ones, beyond the formula. It’s quite magical.”
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It’s pretty clear that voice actors don’t want AI tools making a muck of their profession, both from an artistic standpoint and in the interest of their own livelihoods, but Amelia Tyler did bring up a particularly interesting edge case: modding and small projects.
I agree wholeheartedly with her and long time Elder Scrolls/Fallout actorWes Johnson, who tweeted that “anyone trying to create a mod using an actor’s voice via AI without consent knows they are wrong.” AI voice cloning is an abuse of trust, and I can only imagine the surreal horror of hearing your own voice saying things you never said, let alone cruel or objectionable speech.
(Image credit: Nathan O. Marsh)
Would South Scrimshaw benefit from a real, human performance instead? Absolutely, but the even, emotionless delivery of the generated voice works surprisingly well in a documentary context, the usage of synthesized voice tools is disclosed in the credits, and it all strikes me as a reasonable compromise for a solo artist with a day job making a free game. South Scrimshaw is, uncomfortably, an example of AI generation being deployed well to augment an artist’s limited resources.
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