The Rise of AI Voiceover -
by British Male Voice Actor Chris Tester
The rise of the AI voice has been the go-to anxiety topic for the voiceover industry for the last couple of years. The one before this was arguably the acceptance of home studios. They were more readily available and affordable technology, better remote connections, and more online casting portals allowing people to go directly to their clients.
That meant that there was a greater acceptance of that as a valid way of doing voiceover work. So before we get into the whole AI thing, it's really important that we set out what exactly we're talking about and specifically that there's a distinction between the two main types of AI voice that are out there!
There's text to speech, and there's also speech to speech. Text to speech is what we most readily accept. AI voices to be so that you're inputting text, and as a result, a synthetic voice is turning that into spoken speech. But there's also speech to speech where there is actually a live performance giving the vocal inflections. But then a digital mask of another voice is being placed over the top of it, and we also need to remember that as most developing technologies AI voice stands on a moral spectrum.
There are better examples of it and worse examples on the one side. Some of this technology is literally giving voice to the voiceless, as demonstrated by the vocal id's work in the area. And then, on the opposite side, you have the model that we as voice actors might be more familiar with, which is something like a product like speechello, which advertises itself overtly as a solution to those costly and unnecessary voice actors.
So I'd say the key questions about AI voices are:
How good are they?
Will they replace voice actors?
What voiceover genres will it affect?
And how can voice actor’s best prepare for it?
Every few months, there seems to be another development in the mainstream media that provokes another spasm of anxiety for voiceover actors. Eighteen months ago, it was probably the release of a trailer of an AI voice that could cry called faith by the developer synaptic.
Most recently, there was a controversy sparked by the troy baker, the voice actor. Now the baker is essentially as close to voice actor royalty as you can get; he starred in a whole variety of different franchises. Some of the biggest franchises in video games have been a running joke within the industry that he's in pretty much every game he tweeted about partnering with an AI voice company to allow everyone the chance to own and invest in the IPS that they create.
Now part of the controversy was that it was a combination of AI voice and NFTS, which is another subject. And to itself that I don't really want to focus on in this video but what I do want to focus on in this video is that it shows that many voice actors out there already are exploring the different options of monetizing an AI version of their voice. When discussing his thinking and the subsequent backlash on the podcast play, watch listen baker explain a bit more thoroughly about his rationale: you never fire like the middle management.
You fire the most expensive that's where the change happens; producers, by and large, are looking for how we can get away from hiring someone like a troy baker. Who's really expensive versus that guy doesn't cost that much. He's a negligible amount, or she's not going to be as expensive. So what I'm saying is they're trying to if they're trying to bring anybody's costs down; it's not that person. It's me!
My job is not better than anything. My job is to solve the problem. Now I'd recommend that podcast, and I would also say that Alana Pierce - the video game writer and Mike Bithell - the video game developer made very good counterpoints in terms of obviously the very explicit risk that AI voices might have, especially for a new voice over talents coming into the industry who aren't as established as a baker.
But what possibly interested me most about the baker's explanations towards his thinking was that it wasn't just about being as good as he could possibly be as an actor. Still, it was also about his focus on addressing the pain points of the clients that are out there, which rings true to a lot of the marketing that I do where on the marketing that recommends where it's not all about you. And what you can do but it's addressing you're the markets and your potential client's pain points first and foremost.
But I was meeting about this literally last week with a studio that was like. We don't want to use the robot voice, but it's not a good use of our time to have people in-house. Record all the dialogue what our options are. So I definitely, I get that, and I also. I also understand that smaller voice actors are concerned with it too. I imagine that for similar for the composing community like I would guess people are split on it. Some people like it and some people don't. So given all of this, what should voice actors do? Should we just give up? Should we pretend it? Isn't it existing or happening at all just living entirely in denial, or maybe we should just sell out as soon as possible.
We still can't be sure what exact voiceover genres will be most affected, but we can take an educated guess on IVR phone messaging. Some e-learning will probably be the most obvious candidates because if an AI program can change the language of an entire course rapidly, that can have some added value. There's also an argument for some commercial content to be specifically catered towards AI programs. Maybe you receive an advert that addresses you by name, addresses the location where you are, and also address what it is that you're playing or watching that commercial experience which some marketers are going to want to engage with is only really going to be feasible using an AI voice rather than having a human talent recording. Potentially millions of different variations in games AI voices are used as a placeholder and in the development process. And there are actual AI voices programs that are being built into and trialed in platforms such as unity which is specifically to aid the game development process because it makes more financial sense sometimes as a placeholder than it would be to hire live talent for in-progress work. Also, the wide availability of decent AI voices generally speaking would obviously invite greater use of voices in indie games.
Whereas before, they would simply be priced out entirely, and we can see how some of the online casting sites are already catering to this where you have voice 123 and voices.com trialing AI voices and freelancing websites such as Fiverr looking at teaming up with AI providers such as lovo so that people can first of all order samples of existing human voiceovers. But then that leading probably almost essentially to them also having an AI voice offering as well there is also the wider question of diversity that needs to certainly be born in the mind which is that if a whole area is suddenly flooded by AI voice versions of reputable video game voice actors that people are going to be using instead of early voice actors, then it means that there's going to be a narrower pool of actual talent there.
As a result, some of the newer and more diverse talent coming into voice acting might be stifled in their development, but still and I'm sorry this is a cop-out. It is still too soon to know for sure exactly how this will impact. All we know is that there is a greater tolerance now that we're using Alexa, Siri, and TTS in the social media that we imbibe every day. There is a greater tolerance. It will be part of our lives in some form to come; that's as much as we know, and we can't ignore it. So what can us as voice actors do? Well, I suggest five things!
The first thing I'd recommend is that we focus on being voice actors, and this may seem obvious. But it still bears repeating the one thing that ai voices struggle with is spontaneous, realistic emotion, and even if you do teach an AI voice to cry with specific inputs, then if you give them those same specific inputs, they will cry in the same way, there's not going to be that level of spontaneity. Whereas an actor who lives in the moment has a seemingly limitless way of channeling those kinds of things, you also need to value yourself artistically as a collaborator. As well as just a gun for hire, as a voice actor, you can understand the rules of copy and how to interpret text and give feedback on that. Similarly, with character relationships, characters' background, and the decision-making process. The decision-making process behind that is all added value that you can readily market and sell to potential collaborators, which AI voices simply won't have.
My second point would be to be as educated as possible about the subject. So I would say podcasts like the VO social podcast about AI voices are great Anne Ganguzza’s VO boss podcasts. She's created a series of interviews with different AI voice providers about their approaches to their ethical standpoints. All of that kind of thing, I would say Hugh Edwards - a gravy for the brain has worked a lot with TTS stuff and spoken to several number developers. And I'd say podcasts like play watch listen where you're seeing game developers, game writers, composers, and voice actors, all discussing this kind of thing. So that it's not isolated but as part of our whole conversation in itself are, invaluable.
The third thing to do is be open to potential opportunities where AI voice could augment your workflow. Yes, you could have an AI avatar that you market yourself or have someone mark a market for you for a lower stream of paid work. But there's also the potential to use AI voice, maybe just to do pickups in your workflow so that an algorithm can auto-replace those 12 errors for you instead of you having to go back in and do those pickups again. It's just being open to all of the different offerings out there. So that you can then see what might serve you best do you want an AI avatar. Do you want it to be on a separate platform? Do you want someone to market for you again by familiarising yourself with what other people are offering? You can start making some informed decisions.
The fourth point going hand in hand with that is to value your voice usage rights, and I'll always be banging on about knowing what usage is as a voice actor. Anyway, it's essentially making sure that you steer clear of anything which asks for a potential complete buyout. A lot of voice actors will have seen a text-to-speech was programmed. Where you'll have to record anything from half an hour to three hours to ten hours of seemingly nonsensical sentences from which they'll create a text-to-speech program. And then they'll offer com a complete buyout fee of anywhere from between two and a half to three thousand up to ten to twenty thousand pounds or dollars. And all of this kind of stuff is really iffy because they're essentially offering a buyout on that. And therefore, you don't have any say on where that voice may end up, and obviously, we've got a recent example of Bev standing a voice actor whose voice was used on TikTok without her permission. Those usage rights are really going to be crucial because if you sign them away too early and very, very, very cheaply, that's going to be the slippery slope.
And finally, the fifth thing is to return to a theme of mine, which is the crucial aspect of forging direct relationships with your clients rather than being beholden to freelancing sites or pay-to-plays or anything like this your value proposition. As a voice actor, there will be more and more this human connection and all of the additional benefits that you can add and if other things can get in the way of that. Then that will diminish your ability to maintain a career in this area. The sooner that you're independent and very clear about what value you're adding to every single project you lend yourself with, the more you're going to make yourself independent and more self-sustaining as a business to conclude.
I'd encourage us to look back at what I was discussing with the advent of home studios beforehand. Those talents that thrived were those who weren't afraid of new technology and were appreciative that their customer's workflows were changing. And therefore, their skill sets needed to change to cater to those new needs; they embraced new technology and saw how that could be able to enhance their client offering. We need to be aware of something that we need to bear in mind in a customer-centric way as much as possible.
I don't believe that AI voices are going to spell the end of voice actors in their careers, especially when we live in a world where emotional connection and authenticity is a key factors in everything that we do, whether that's particularly artistic projects or voice acting, whether it's e-learning whether or not it's commercial or narration. All of these things, the emotional connection will always be key, but still, we have to be aware of what is developing around us. I hope you found this video of some interest, and if you have, please do like subscribe and spread the word; I look forward to seeing you next time!
With thanks - your favourite British Male Voiceover - Naturally RP