Voice Actors Speak Up About AI Concerns at Comic-Con

A panel of voice actors organized by NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, appeared at San Diego's Comic-Con on Saturday to discuss their concerns regarding AI, in specific terms to their profession.

In addition to concerns that voice actors could be outright replaced by AI for the majority of their work, the panel brought to light the possibility that actors' voices could be manipulated without their consent.

“As a human voice actor, I can walk into a room and get a script that says something that I didn’t either agree to say or something that I would never say, I personally have that ability to walk out of that room,” said NAVA president and founder Tim Friedlander, per Variety.

Without protections put in place, “We’ve lost control over what our voice could possibly say,” Friedlander, who has done voice work for a variety of popular TV, video game and anime series, said.

SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who joined the voice actors on the panel, agreed, noting, "We’ve got to reject the idea that this is just something that’s going to happen to us and we can't say anything about it."

Crabtree-Ireland made an allusion to Disney's classic The Little Mermaid to drive home his point: "I remember seeing that for the first time and thinking how horrifying is it that this sea witch steals the voice of this person and then uses it for whatever. That is exactly what we’re talking about.”

According to Variety, the panel noted that NAVA is striving to create guidelines for AI to be used in an "ethical manner" within their field, including the necessity to give active, informed consent for voice actor's voices to be used by AI; the assurance that voice actors will have control over how their voices are used; and fair compensation for that use.