New York Voice Professionals Sue for Rights Over Their Replicated Voices
Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage, a couple based in New York and dedicated to voice acting, have become the face of a legal battle against Lovo, a tech startup from Berkeley. They have come forward with claims that their vocal recordings, which were solicited under what they believed to be benign pretenses for internal or scholarly use, were instead used to craft an artificial intelligence voice generator accessible to the public.
Lehrman and Sage were compensated with payments of $1200 and $400 when they initially provided their voice samples on a freelance platform, assuming the work was for innocuous purposes. Much to their dismay, they later found their voices had been replicated and commercialized without their knowledge—nor further economic consideration—by Lovo’s AI tool.
The couple’s lawsuit seeks to rally every voice actor whose vocal identity Lovo may have appropriated, aiming to terminate the company’s unauthorized utilization and to secure proper recompense.
Lovo’s AI voice generator, requiring a subscription for usage, is promoted for producing content such as advertisements, videos, and customer service interfaces. Notably, the company’s marketing suggests the technology can also imitate famed personalities for non-commercial amusement.
Founded by two University of California, Berkeley alumni in 2019, Lovo has to date accumulated $7 million in venture funding.
The contention of Lehrman and Sage is emblematic of a wider ethical question regarding the burgeoning field of synthetic voice technology and the rights of individuals contributing their voices to the digital landscape.
The Rise of Synthetic Voices and Legal Implications
Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage are not alone in their concerns about the use of their voices to create synthetic representations. Their case highlights important considerations in the field of synthetic voice technology. As AI voice cloning becomes more sophisticated, it has increasingly caught the attention of the entertainment industry, voice actors, and legal experts due to implications for consent, intellectual property rights, and the potential for misuse.
Key Questions and Answers:
1. What are the legal grounds for Lehrman and Sage’s lawsuit against Lovo?
The lawsuit likely centers on issues of copyright, consent, and right of publicity. The voice actors contend that their vocal samples were used to generate commercial products without their ongoing consent and without proper compensation, potentially violating their intellectual property and publicity rights.
2. What does this case mean for the future of voice acting and AI-generated voices?
This case could set legal precedents for how voice data should be treated, how consent must be obtained, and how voice actors are compensated when their voices are used to create synthetic speech. It could shape industry standards and regulations for AI voice synthesis.
3. Are there existing guidelines for ethical use of AI in voice replication?
While there are some guidelines and discussions in the industry around ethical AI, the rapid advancement in the technology quickly outpaces legislation and clear ethical guidelines specific to voice replication are still evolving.
Key Challenges or Controversies:
– Consent and Transparency: How companies obtain and use voice recordings is a major issue. Voice actors need transparency to understand how their voices will be used and must provide informed consent.
– Intellectual Property Rights: The unclear distinction between a person’s voice and their legal rights to that voice creates challenges in defining ownership and control over voice-based IP.
– Compensation and Rights: Addressing how voice actors are paid and ensuring they receive fair compensation when their voices are used to generate ongoing revenue is contentious.
Advantages and Disadvantages:
Advantages of AI voice generators include:
– They can reduce costs for content creation.
– They provide flexibility in generating speech for different applications without relying on human availability.
– They can improve accessibility for people with speech impairments or for translating languages.
Disadvantages include:
– Potential misuse of voices, such as in creating deepfakes or unauthorized impersonations.
– They may reduce job opportunities for human voice actors.
– The voices could be used without proper compensation or credit to the original voice actor.
Related to this topic are discussions around the legal and ethical aspects of emerging AI technologies and their interaction with personal rights. Although direct links to other articles or sources discussing the specific case of Lehrman and Sage are not provided, further reading can be found by searching for information on ethical AI use, AI in entertainment law, and intellectual property rights in digital media.
For general information on synthetic voice technology and ethical AI use, you may visit the websites of leading institutions and AI industry groups, which often address these issues on their platforms.
The source of the article is from the blog kunsthuisoaleer.nl