'AI STOLE My Voice!!!' - Voice Actor Remie Michelle Clarke

A special thank you to @nethervoicevideos for helping connect me with Remie. Thank you, sir!

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[Jodi_Krangle]

I feel so badly for Remie! I hope she gets some resolution about this soon. There's also an organization called the Open Voice Network - which is Linux funded - that's actively tackling the voice synthesis/AI ethical questions head on. I highly suggest that anyone interested in this, get involved. Great episode, Paul!

[saramaccennse]

Hello I'm from Poland and I can see the reason's why big corporation's would use AI and not care for human's that been used as voice, face, id .... Lets look at + in AI over human's :
AI don't need to eat, sleep, be paid, go on break's, drink etc. And technology is unlimited ( technically ) . The really scary scenario is : The moment when some fool would give AI " free will ", the moment when " it " could recognize itself in mirror, and understood that is a creation that can learn faster, can be more beter than human and that it can log in or be connected to online many laptop's, smartphon's etc it will 100 % take advantege and take over. It give me the vibre of Terminator. CREEPY.

[Penelope]

It's a Voice Over artist's worst nightmare. We ALL need to be educated about this and I do think there needs to be more court legislation happening to defend VOs for either not being compensated for AI voice cloning/synthetic use or... we may see more legal action being taken.

I think when it comes to more creative stuff like commercials, movie trailers, promos, documentaries, animation, video game character dubbing and Corporate videos, VO isn't threatened.

I more-so worried about Explainer Videos and ELearning being taken over by AI. ELearning is the bulk of alot of VO talent income and I feel like Instructional Designers will try to cut corners.

[WaltPowellsAIProductions]

I didn't think that voice sounded like her

[robscig]

Read the Microsoft contract. That’s where Revoicer likely got your voice files. The big 4 (Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon) have been creating banks of voices for years which these smaller companies are drawing from for their AI databases. I have had several cases like this I have worked on with Microsoft.

[voicesbyandrew]

Monster of a subject to discuss and you both handled it excellently. So many unknowns and possibilities, but great to see the community coming together to work through this.

[Vaillle]

Companies absolutely do not have the right to steal a persons voice. A persons voice is linked to their very being, and to allow companies to sell her being to others and be made to speak without her consent is the spirit of slavery. Our speech is one of the most intimate and personal things we have. Her autonomy is compromised by this and an aspect of her is stolen and used. This SHOULD carry legal ramifications. She should be able to sue for this. No other person/company has a right to your voice without your direct consent in a documented agreement. Company cannot sell your voice to a 3rd party. That’s virtual slavery, a piece of you is being bought and made to work for someone else.

[Laura_DiNunno]

Well, if this isn't the most effed up and depressing thing to happen. I'm so sorry she's going through this. Excuse me, I have to go and scream into a pillow now.

[RemieMichelleClarke]

Thanks so much for having me, Paul. A huge topic, and we barely scratched the surface. Much more to learn here, and to know. I hope this interview helps other actors and artists to be vigilant about their work.

[tomconklinvo]

Wow. I hope Remie can get some answers. We have to stay vigilant.

[tawnykc]

I've had the fear lately that this would happen to me. Whose to say what happens with auditions that we submit and don't get the job for? Even on one of the pay-to-play sites, I'm seeing a lot of low paying jobs (according to industry standards) and I'm starting to feel uneasy even auditioning. I'm trying to stay positive but it's hard to hear stories like this.

[teertaa]

The scariest part is, giving actual concern about ai theft will be treated like "its just an ai, they are just cancel hungry twitter users" by certain pipelines.

Sorry to hear that artists from all of dimensions (voice, visual, etc) dealing with this.

[rdbvoices]

Great video, heart breaking to hear she was taken advantage of and bravo to her amazing engineer for the heads up. Awareness is paramount

[FurryEskimo]

I mean, everyone’s felt threatened by advances in technology, since, forever.. Storytellers we’re upset when the Literal written word was invented because now they had to compete with books.. What constitutes a legitimate job changes over time, and the completion is getting fiercer. I don’t agree with people making AI voices of voice actors still in the business, but if a voice actor has died or you can’t find someone able to mimic a specific tone, then sure, seems fine. I always wanted to mix audio but it was so hard, and this seemed so much easier, but using the tech to mimic people still alive, without their consent, seems invasive, because you’re actually stealing potential revenue from that person, but you also wouldn’t see a person in public and copy their exact appearance for an animated movie character.

[Angie-jgnz]

She’s correct, AI is only a copy, can’t create. I hate robotic, voices. They literally make me cringe. AI can never capture the essence of the real spirited human. This is why, so much of what we think is REAL, reality, is fake. It’s still attempting to completely steal, replace, replicate, everything. The copy that we are presented with here, is like a RAW photo, that’s been cropped, cut, low resolution, smaller version with bad pixelation. Nothing natural left except, the spirit filled humans.(very few of them)

[CONTENTCREATORCORPS]

Great work again, Paul. AI has been all I've been allowed to talk about these past two months on all my shows. Rightly so. This is too important to our industry. As said in my most recent podcast, all us working VO tallent have the unwanted honor of being the first carairies in the coal mine...

[joshuagoodman]

This quote by Remie crystallized for me the root issue that AI exposes with regard to its attempt to capture a human's artistic expression: "So all these creations are based on the past. So there's nothing new being made. And I know when you...purchase an Al voice is something that has no spirit in it...what's so important to me about... human creativity is that there's something inspired about it..." Thank you both for enlightening me on this issue. AI can be immensely useful, but when it comes down to replicating anything that belongs inherently to an artist (their unique voice or likeness) without their express written consent, it would seem there needs to be local/national/international laws that protect that from happening.

[crackcaster]

so it's basically not stealing voices it's do impressions artificially. Like a song cover, think it's already to late to make new laws but I would love to have EVERYTHING voiced in my videogames that could be achievable and affordable in the future

[michaelmiddleton]

Thank you, Remie...for sharing your very personal ordeal, as many folks are terified of AI. I think your final thoughts were spot on. Working in conjunction with AI will be necessary to put that spirituality, that soul back into it. We can hear your amazing voices and see your beautiful faces -AI can only mimick the real thing and maybe that's enough for now. A resurgence in the spirit of people is on the horizon(hopefully). Thank You so much for sharing this converstion--Paul Schmidt - Stay Groovy.

[bonifyVO]

Scary but not surprising this is happening and I'm sure many more cases like this will be surfacing. Thank you Paul & Remie for sharing this story and I hope there's some justice to be found.