“Pandora’s box is open” when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), the world’s most popular anime and video game voice actors warned at this week’s Comic-Con event. North America’s largest pop culture gathering is being held amid a massive Hollywood strike, partly because of concerns among actors and writers about AI’s encroachment on the arts. Voice acting has been at the forefront of the debate, with readily available technology that allows users to duplicate someone’s voice and read new lines of dialogue (often without their permission). Voice Actors Association of America founder Tim Friedlander shared a recent example of a voice actor who lost his job after working for a company for three years. “They said, ‘We have your voice for three years. The danger doesn’t just come from the studio. Over the past few years, there has been a surge in fans using AI “deepfake mods” to replicate famous voices, making them read new material, often pornographic in nature. “I have children,” said Sissy Jones of the animated TV series “The Owl House.” Zeke Alton, who recently voiced the video game Callisto Protocol, said the voice actors weren’t trying to ban AI outright. “To be clear, Pandora’s box is open,” he said. “Artificial intelligence is a major dead end in deadlocked negotiations between Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), which joined the writers’ strike earlier this month. Actors have accused the studios of failing to take seriously concerns that they would be “vulnerable to the replacement of most of their productions with digital replicas.” The studio announced Friday that it has proposed establishing informed consent and fair compensation if “digital replicas” of performers and actors are made. Duncan Crabtree Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, told reporters at Comic-Con that the studio wants to “embed” an AI consent clause “somewhere in the middle of a 12-page contract”. He warned that voice acting is “at the forefront” of the AI debate, with change “happening faster in voice acting than in other areas.” For example, studios are looking for AI for dubbing. Foreign-language dialogue will deprive voice actors around the world of jobs for local markets. Another concern is that studios may use “synthetic” voices, combining multiple human voices, and not pay the original actors at all. Despite the uproar, some voice acting jobs are currently unaffected by the strike and some are being negotiated under separate union contracts. Giving voice to animated characters, announcing trailers, and adding dialogue to background actors in film and television scenes is a very common practice known as a “loop” or ADR (Automated Dialogue Replace). However, video game voice work is under a separate union contract for “interactive” media, negotiations are still ongoing, so he can continue to appear without breaking the strike. Still, voice actor Alton cautioned, “What happens in this strike will affect all professions, not just the acting profession.” “Actors are actors, actors.” So if this deal doesn’t protect us when this strike ends, then any deal won’t protect us,” he said.
