At a social gathering last evening, I was utterly astonished to find an actor taking the view that “the horse has bolted, and nothing can be done” about the “scraping” and unauthorised use of actors’ voices by AI companies. (By the way, “scraping” of print content has also gone on for decades – which is how the actor’s view is related to my concerns not only as a publisher of audio (and, in future, visual content) but also as a publisher of print content.)
I tried to explain to the actor that a blowback against such unauthorised and uncompensated use has started and is in progress – but, alas, good news is often not believed!
So I provide, below, a bit of information on the blowback, that might actually be encouraging also to all of us – giant companies can’t get away with everything for ever.
In the USA: a federal court decision in New York allowed voice actors to proceed with claims against the AI startup, Lovo, for violating the actors’ rights and using their voices in AI products without consent or proper payment.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief—which would force companies to stop using their voices and to hand over profits made from the unauthorized use.
As Lovo is a “class action” case, actors (and associated plaintiffs) are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief—which, when successful, would force companies to stop using their voices and to hand over profits made from unauthorized use.
The controversy over OpenAI’s “Sky” voice (which resembled Scarlett Johansson), have already led to companies withdrawing certain AI voices either under legal pressure, or the threat of lawsuits – or the perception that, as they perhaps can’t get away with this sort of thing in future and might face massive fines, they had better take pre-emptive action.
The SAG-AFTRA strike shows that unions are also pushing for protections – and, as a result, there are already new contracts that specifically require producers to seek consent and provide compensation before using digital replicas of actors.
Most important, the draft “No Fakes Act”, which was introduced last year and is (as far as I am aware) under review by the House Judiciary Committee, where it has bipartisan support (how extraordinary for anything to have bipartisan support in the US nowadays!) so has a good chance of becoming law, and would protect both voice and visual likeness from unauthorized use, as well as penalise any entity that produces or even hosts unauthorized digital replicas.
And the bad news for those who are dead set against the EU is that its AI Act, which was passed last year, and starts being implemented this year, already forbids the unauthorised use of voices, photos, moving images, etc
Though we might want to keep in mind that the unauthorised use of voices, photos, moving images, etc was of course already banned by the EU under the provisions of GDPR.
“That’s all very well for the US and the EU”, the actor at the social occasion last evening might have said, “but what about us in the UK?”
If he had actually bothered to listen, he might have learnt that, in further bad news for those who are dead set against the EU, the provisions of EU’s GDPR were adopted by the UK under its own GDPR law, and so continue to apply in the UK as well.
Do note that, last evening, I had said that the blowback has “begun”, I didn’t say that it is high noon. The climate is not yet entirely changed. But it has begun to change.
Overall, my message is this:
Both in relation to those things, and to everything else that is happening around us, let’s not believe all the easy doom-mongering that is intended to lead us to passivity and fatalism.
Let us look also at the positive things that are happening, and be encouraged in our struggle to make the world better.