Wicklow voiceover artist says her voice has been ‘stolen by AI’

Whenever Ms Clarke goes online, she hears her voice in synthetic form across a range of products, Instagram ads, Youtube videos and a variety of A.I voice websites.

This is not something she ever imagined could happen without her knowledge.

“The people who are trying to construct this new world aren’t even considering the human fall out of all this,” Remie said from her home in Wicklow.

Ms Clarke detailed how she found out her voice had been ‘stolen by artificial intelligence.’

“I have been a voice over actor for 17 years. Ads, animation, radio drama, audio books. Someone I’ve known for many years called asking how it was working for an A.I site, Revoicer.com.

“He said to me ‘it’s definitely your voice,’ he sent me the link and it was me. It was my voice – advertised as ‘neutral Irish’ but with a picture of an Asian lady named Olivia with long, grey hair.

“It was advertised as perfect for audio books, children’s books, and other things. Apart from the shock, I was angry, how do I solve this?” Remie said.

Ms Clarke contacted a media lawyer who helped her get to the root of what had happened.

“I did a job for Microsoft at the beginning of 2020, during lockdown. Industry was closed and a job came in for something.

“There was no mention of Microsoft or 3rd party use in the posting. It was for a ‘voice for internal use and possibly end use.’

“They said ‘we need you to record now and sign this contract right now.’ It was lockdown and I grabbed it with both hands.

“I’m in this position now because I should have sought advice on the contract. In layman’s terms the contract said, ‘we now own your voice’ and so does ‘everyone else who makes a contract with us’.

“It opened unlimited A.I use of my voice. It was short sighted on my part, but lawyers have called the contract ‘ludicrous’. It is not ethical,” Ms Clarke said.

The experienced actor now finds her voice being used in synthetic form right across the internet.

“I’ve heard my voice on products, Instagram ads, Youtube videos, various A.I voice sites.

“It’s a potentially industry dissolving technology and it’s had a huge effect on me. The technology is improving at such a fast pace. Before you know it, we won’t be able to tell between the human and synthetic voice.

“How will people distinguish reality and what’s artificially created? We need a global approach legally. These companies can completely control everything, every industry. Any type of role.

“If it’s all outsourced to a non-human entity, what future are we facing? The people who are trying to construct this new world aren’t even considering the human fall out.

“Millions may lose their jobs, livelihoods, identities, and self-worth in the name of progress and that’s absolutely fine, well it’s not fine,” Remie added.

Sunday World reached out to both Revoicer.com and Microsoft for comment in relation to Remie’s case but no formal reply was received by the time of publishing.