Amid the growing debate over AI, ethics and consent, a popular voice actor has left Twitter after he was found to be the target of harassment.
Fans on Reddit discovered that Erica Lindbeck, who voiced Futaba Sakura in Persona 5 and Black Cat in Insomniac Spider-Man, deleted both her Twitter and Instagram accounts over the weekend. This came as a backlash from AI advocates for publishing a YouTube video of her stealing her voice work in Persona 5 to generate a cover of Bo Burnham’s song “Welcome to the Internet.” It happened after.
Unfortunately, there are few archived tweets of the event, but several screenshots have gone viral on Reddit and Twitter. Lindbeck seems to have expressed dissatisfaction with the existence of AI-generated videos, tweet the link “Everyone, please report this. This is a serious violation.” Calls to flag the video on a large scale seem to have caught the eye of trolls, who reuploaded the video on social media in retaliation. Despite the original creators having deleted the video, this is what Lindbeck later tweeted, “The creators of the video are amazing people. Thank you for sending me a message and apologizing. I apologize to them.” No offense to you, next time something like this happens I will handle it differently,” he tweeted.
of more tweetsLindbeck clarified, “This is not about *this* video in particular or *this* creator in particular. I had a content creator make an AI video of my character.” [referring to her character of Loona on TV show Helluva Boss] You made slanderous remarks about a program I was on. Literally say words that might be taken as your own. As an artist, it’s very scary. I’m sure these people are making this stuff for fun and are fully aware that AI content can have a negative impact on people using their voices. I have not. It was never my intention to hunt this creator down. “
Despite this, the harassment of Lindbeck seems to continue. The now-suspended account tweeted that the voice actor had started a “harassment campaign,” adding that the video was “ridiculous and harmless,” and citing monetization as the reason it wasn’t a big deal.
Responses to the tweet were flooded with support for Lindbeck, with fellow voice actors and Persona 5 cast members defending Lindbeck in comments and retweets.Robbie Daymond as Goro Akechi in Atlus JRPG tweeted “About Erica Lindbeck. What the hell is wrong with people? Has social media and the internet completely destroyed their decency? Made their brains mushy? Stole their empathy, Disconnected from reality and elevated their malignant narcissism to 11? I’m insanely angry.”
Ann Takamaki and Erika Harlacher-Stone also participated, Tweet “Erika Lindbeck is wonderful and kind and has been through hell and hell in the last few years. AI bullying her from social media, how dare you tell me not to steal your voice without your consent??? You’re having a bad day, so I hope you have a bad day. “
Voice actors Josh Keaton, Yuri Lowenthal, and Mike Pollock also defended Lindbeck. Lowenthal”seconded“Erika is a great person and doesn’t deserve this,” Keaton said, while Pollock photoshopped the suspended account’s tweets, adding, “Putting nasty words in other people’s mouths is a bit of a joke.” Don’t you think so?” he added. Spooky? “
This situation came shortly after a number of voice actors condemned the use of AI. Their voices were duplicated for NSFW deepfake mods. Many people point out the lack of consent to have their work processed for the use of AI, and the National Voice Actors Association said, “The damage to voice actors and game companies due to AI and synthesized voices is real and visible. ‘ said.
