Fryda Wolff, a voice actor who has appeared in games such as Apex Legends, told Motherboard ‘game developers, animation studios, and perhaps even commercial clients could get away with squeezing more performances out of me through feeding my voice to AI, using these generated performances, and then never compensating me for use of my ‘likeness’, never mind informing my agency that this was done.’

Mati Staniszewski, co-founder of ElevenLabs, told Motherboard in an email that the company sees a future in which AI companies and voice actors partner together. ‘Voice actors will no longer be limited by the number of recording sessions they can attend and instead they will be able to license their voices for use in any number of projects simultaneously, securing additional revenue and royalty streams. This potential was already recognized by voice actors themselves, a few dozen of whom contacted us declaring interest in such partnerships,’ Staniszewski.

In response to ElevenLabs’ statement, Wolff said ‘actors don’t want the ability to license or ‘secure additional revenue streams,’ that nonsense jargon gives away the game that ElevenLabs have no idea how voice actors make their living.’ Wolff added, ‘we can just ask musicians how well they’ve been doing since streaming platforms licensing killed ‘additional revenue and royalty streams’ for music artists. ElevenLabs’ verbiage is darkly funny.’

‘Disrespectful to the Craft:’ Actors Say They’re Being Asked to Sign Away Their Voice to AI

I spoke with Joseph Cox of Motherboard for Vice about my concerns in regards to AI and AI software companies taking advantage of and abusing voice actors, particularly without our consent.