If there is one reason to be against the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it would be the unauthorized use of someone’s voice and likeness. There have already been several cases of an actor’s voice being recreated through AI without their consent, or the consent of their families.
An AI startup based in Berkley, CA is facing a class action lawsuit for the voice theft of actors.
The Berkley-based AI startup, LOVO, is facing a class action lawsuit alleging the startup misappropriated voiceover actor’s voices. The lawsuit came about through voiceover artists Paul Sky Lehrman and his wife Linnea Sage. This is believed to be the first lawsuit against an AI firm over the theft and use of one’s likeness to train an AI system. With it being labeled as a class action lawsuit, it can also represent other voiceover artists and A-List celebrities.
Lehrman was originally contacted by an unidentified user, who later was revealed to be a LOVO employee, back in 2020. He was paid $1,200 to provide voiceover services that were to be “used for academic research purposes only.” Lehrman was assured in another message that his work “will not be used for anything else.” Two years later he heard his voice being used in a video about Russian bombs for a YouTube channel called Military News. He would hear his voice being used again in June 2023 for the “Deadline Strike Talk” podcast.
Lehrman was not compensated for either instance of his voice being used. According to the lawsuit, LOVO allegedly marketed Lehrman’s voice under the stage name “Kyle Snow.” “His voice was the default voice for the software; his voice was also touted as one of the five best text-to-speech voices, and it was used to advertise and explain the product,” the lawsuit reads.
Sage, known for her work on Marvel games, claims she went through a similar experience in 2019. She had been offered a similar job to help produce test scripts for radio ads. She claims that she was also assured her voice “will only be consumed internally, so will not require rights of any sort.” In 2023, Sage allegedly discovered LOVO using her voice under the stage name “Sally Coleman.”
LOVO claims their AI system was trained by thousands of voices. The lawsuit alleges that the voices of “Kyle Snow” and “Sally Coleman” are distinctly Lehrman and Sage. We will follow this story and report as it develops.
