GTA Voice Actor Ned Luke Bashes AI Firm Stealing His Voice

AI is brilliant technology but at the same time it’s awful, its being used to market everything in tech even if it doesn’t use any AI which was especially evident over the past CES week. It’s being used for scamming, deepfakes, illegal pornography, and it’s leading to problems with “AI Artists” claiming that the work is their own when we all know it isn’t. Overall there are just a lot of negative things which are in my opinion outweighing the positives for the general consumer. Focusing on one of these problems, deepfakes, specifically replicating the voice of notable people and in this circumstance, Ned Luke who is known for voicing Michael De Santa from GTA V.

AI Michael De Santa Voice

Fake AI voices have been a big problem with various big name celebrities having their voice and in some cases face taken to promote scams or other products without permission. One of these occasions involved Ned Luke and an AI firm named WAME. Via Eurogamer, The GTA voice actor responded to a since deleted tweet from the firm which was advertising GTA fans the chance to have a “realistic voice conversation” with Michael. His tweet in response said there was “nothing cool about ripping people off with some lame computer estimation of my voice” and tagging RockstarGames and the actors union SAG-AFTRA leading to the removal of WAME’s post.

Eurogamer received a statement from WAME who said; “We staunchly advocate for creative freedom and agree that the rights of those who inspire creative works must be equally respected. We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Luke for any distress caused and take this as a crucial learning opportunity to strive for a balance between creators’ rights and ethical AI usage.”

I agree, this is a crucial learning opportunity, but its one that should’ve been obvious from the start. Don’t steal someone’s voice using AI, ask permission. I reckon there’s a 90% chance this apology was written by AI.

AI is still in a very wild west state where it’s usage is being abused without any regulation and chances are it will remain that way for a good while. New technology will keep throwing us curveballs and even I’m struggling to keep up.