They claim AI stole their voices. Now they’re suing
CNN
Voice actor Paul Lehrman took a job in 2020 for which he believed he was providing a set of one-off voice samples. Years later, he says he heard his voice narrating a YouTube video and then on a podcast — even though he had never recorded either of them.
Voice actor Paul Lehrman took a job in 2020 for which he believed he was providing a set of one-off voice samples. Years later, he says he heard his voice narrating a YouTube video and then on a podcast — even though he had never recorded either of them. Now, Lehrman, along with fellow voice actor Linnea Sage, is suing AI firm Lovo for allegedly commissioning them for voice projects under false pretenses in order to create and sell AI-generated versions of their voices. The Berkeley, California based tech company advertises AI-generated voice technology to be used in marketing, education and product demos. Lehrman and Sage are suing Lovo and seeking class action status to include other people “whose voices and/or identities were stolen and used,” according to the complaint filed Thursday in the Southern District Court of New York. The complaint was first reported by the New York Times. The voice actors’ lawsuit is just the latest in a recent string of legal actions brought against various tech companies by creatives, writers and artists who say their work was used without their permission to train AI systems that could ultimately compete with them. Such lawsuits have added to a growing wave of concerns over how the training of AI models, which requires huge swaths of data, could run afoul of copyright and intellectual property laws. “Implicit in LOVO’s offerings to its customers is that each voice-over actor has agreed to LOVO’s terms and conditions for customers to be able to access that actor’s voice,” the complaint states. But for Lehrman and Sage and any others “who have not agreed to LOVO’s terms, the continued unauthorized use of Plaintiffs’ voices is theft of service and misappropriation.” Lovo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
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