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.

  • Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    3·
    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
      2·
      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.

      • brvslvrnst@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I, for one, enjoy seeing a familiar squid, even if we’ve disagreed once or twice ❤️

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

          Thanks. Much love back. I was mostly being facetious. I have considered doing a podcast before but I honestly have no idea what I would do a podcast about or what people would want to hear from me. I also don’t really want to do it alone, but don’t have anyone to do it with.

          Maybe one day…

          • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            Have you ever listened to the podcast “ologies”? It’s a woman who interviews people who are -ologists (proctologist, ornithologist, geologist, etc., as well as some non-ologist specialties that nonetheless fit the theme)

            Maybe something like that would work for you :) then you aren’t stuck with a single topic, you don’t have to do it alone, and you don’t have to find one person to commit to it, it could be several. Just come up with good questions and have a semi-formal chat. It’s a very enjoyable model for learning new things you didn’t know you wanted to know about.

            https://www.alieward.com/ologies

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
          2·
          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.