Solid Snake and Commander Shepard stars discuss threat of AI on voice acting
"Anybody who steals your voice should be locked up for forever."
AI is a hot topic of discussion across the video game industry right now. Several developers have flirted with this new technology, with the likes of Ubisoft announcing its Ghostwriter AI tool earlier this year. Meanwhile, the High on Life team used AI to create video game voice dialogue.
Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with voice actors Jennifer Hale and David Hayter about their upcoming release, Synapse, and during this conversation, the topic of AI came up.
"I have been staying on top of it," Hale assured me when I asked about the actors' personal take on the matter. "And the number one thing I want to say to everybody out there is: Stay out of fear. Stay in action."
Hale runs a support site for actors, and said AI is something she is "dealing with head on".
"If I were to take your face, for example, and use it to promote my product without your permission, you'd be suing the pants off me and rightly so. The same is true for our voice," she stated.
"It's like anything else with voice acting, it gets overlooked for a minute, and everybody thinks they have the right to it, but they don't. And I believe that the legal system will absolutely bear that out. It's just going to take time."
Hale wants to ensure that the voice acting community remains proactive in its stance against the use of AI. "There's an organisation called NAVA... they've developed a contract writer that anyone can print out off their website and give to anyone hiring them," she shared, while appreciating it can take a certain amount of courage to present a contract such as that and get it signed.
"But it's just like any other job," she stressed. "I remember when I first started working in this industry, you know, I was in a non union market, I was just beginning, I was in a right to work state in the Deep South. And I had people all the time asking me for permission to use my voice in perpetuity. And it took a lot of courage to say, 'No, you can have it for five years'. I didn't know what or why, but I'm glad now that I took that step."
Hale said she has found her name being used on several sites without her permission in the past, and took action to have it removed. "This is theft. And I know you're not a thief. So let's just stop, shall we," she shared. "And that is true in my mind for everyone."
"Anybody who steals your voice should be locked up for forever, but I also have a different perspective on it," Hayter added.
"I was writing a script, I came up with a unique idea for a movie and I thought for fun, I'll put it in ChatGPT and see what it comes back with.... And it was the worst, most clichéd, soulless, dumbest collection of words I've ever seen.
"[With voice AI], it's the same thing. Like, the technology to copy our voices is amazing. If you Google 'deep fake voice, replication of Biden', for example, you know, they've got him saying all these crazy things, or whatever. But if you listen to it, there's no soul to it. It's still clearly just a manufactured version of his voice."
This lack of soul within AI creations has prevented Hayter from becoming overly concerned about the technology, although he agreed actors must remain vigilant.
"If you think you're going to get the thousands of subtle, emotional adjustments that Jennifer Hale is going to give you word for word, you're fooling yourself," he said. "Yes, legally, we should all be protected against these idiots trying to repurpose our voices for free, or our voices or images or writing, what have you. But technologically, I'm not terribly concerned, I think it'll always be soulless."
Soul, Hale believes, is the key to the whole thing. "I remember back when I was on the negotiating committee for the games contract some several years ago, and we struck around games. And the arguments of the other side as we sat in the room with them were, 'you can be easily replaced, you don't bring anything of major significance to games' and I knew in my heart of hearts, they're completely wrong because of the word 'Soul'," she recalled.
"That is the power of highly experienced talent, of any flavour - writers, artists, whatever. They know how to bring the human soul forth. They know how to do that. And in my mind, that has always been the secret sauce that propels a game to the stratosphere. It's that element of presenting the human soul in a really cool, powerful, unique, funny, whatever you want to choose way, and you can't duplicate that."
Hale continued: "It's important that everybody steps up and advocates for themselves and that we all stay in communication. This is a game of Red Rover, we have to link arms."
This is a sentiment shared by Hayter, who simply closed: "Agreed."
You can read more from my chat with Hayter and Hale, where we discuss their characters past and present, creating a game for VR and more, here.
Meanwhile, for more on AI, be sure to check out Ed's interview with other prolific voice actors such as Jane Perry and Troy Baker, where they discuss their scepticism of whether AI can truly replicate human performances and what its impact could be on the voice acting industry.