Konami and Aspyr hit with lawsuits, backlash for using AI without Voice Actors without original consent

Draugoth

Draugoth

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Konami's AI project backfires, Yu-Gi-Oh! videos deleted over unauthorized use of popular actress' voice


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According to a statement from September 8, Konami has taken down two YouTube videos that used AI-generated commentary for Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship (WCS2025) duels. The videos were released in multiple languages as a trial for Konami's AI live commentary project.

Prior to the deletion, suspicions arose that the AI model used for the Japanese language commentary was trained on the voice of popular voice actress and singer Hibiku Yamamura without her consent. On September 6, Yamamura herself commented on X, "the other day, I discovered videos where my voice was being used for AI-generated narration without my permission." Although she did not openly cite any names, she is very likely referring to the videos published by Konami, given the circumstances. The voice actress said the ordeal made her "sad, frustrated and overwhelmed." She got her agency involved in dealing with the issue.


Article:
Konami's AI project backfires, Yu-Gi-Oh! videos deleted over unauthorized use of popular actress' voice


A French Lara Croft Actor Is Taking Action Against Aspyr Over AI Voice Generation


As reported by Le Parisien, actor Françoise Cadol, who has dubbed for Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock, and others, has issued a cease and desist against Aspyr. Cadol accuses Aspyr of using AI to copy her voice without notifying her or even warning fans that the game contained AI voice acting. Therefore, her lawsuit alleges that Aspyr is "misleading consumers", who were "angry" to discover that her voice may have been cloned.



"It's a game, my voice accompanies the gamers, we play together," says Cadol, speaking with Le Parisien. "Tomb Raider has been followed by a lot of people over the years, for them, it's a betrayal, a total disrespect. They are angry."
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Fans in other regions, such as Brazil and Spain, also feel that their dubs were created by AI generating the voices of the original actors. As explained by Tomb Raider YouTuber Tomb Raider de A a Z, Brazilian actor Lene Bastos was informed of the matter and spoke out against it. It now appears that Aspyr got into contact with her and vowed to remove the AI voice acting in an upcoming patch.

Article:
"It's A Betrayal, A Total Disrespect": A French Lara Croft Actor Is Taking Action Against Aspyr Over AI Voice Generation
 
Watching companies swan-dive into the AI shitpile is depressing.

French is like Greek to me (heh, heh), and even I could hear the difference. It's crappy, hissy, and straight-up inferior. Saying nothing of the morality issue, of course.
 
Walliwallipaloo said:
Watching companies swan-dive into the AI shitpile is depressing.

French is like Greek to me (heh, heh), and even I could hear the difference. It's crappy, hissy, and straight-up inferior. Saying nothing of the morality issue, of course.
Click to expand...

It was pretty cool when it came out but it's now polluting the internet to an insane degree, not considering the ethical issues. I'm very tired of AI, I hate we opened this Pandora Box.
 
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Loomy said:
My guess is they knew they weren't going to, but whatever they end up settling for is less than what they've made off of it already.
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Day one on Tombraiderchronicles.com forums people were saying they were about to contact the original french voice actor about this and she hadn't been informed of anything. She thanked them for telling her. It was a matter of time.

Aspyr is literally working with a guy that has done mods for Tomb Raider The Angel of Darkness and he's usually on that forum. They have released more patches and never removed the AI voices...it's on them really.

That said...play these remasters guys...they are actually great and even The Angel of Darkness is almost an actual game.
 
There are actual language mistakes in the generated parts in French. This shows that this isn't tested at all before being shipped.
 
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Likely the dubs are handled by some third party that does it at minimal cost. In the case of TR, the games is so old I don't think they could really rehire the old actress to revoice her believably. Whether they actually used her voice lines to train the AI I don't know. If they did, she'd definitely have a case for her lawsuit, but if it's just vaguely similar and they can prove they didn't use her voice in the training, there's nothing she can do. Probably Aspyr should've paid her to use the old lines to train the AI voice. My guess is they didn't bother since it was just a few tutorial lines. I'm guessing the other dubs are done the same way.
 
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These are massive companies, if they wanted to do that why didn't they just reach out to the actress and try to licence her voice. If they said no, ask someone else, or choose one of the many decent ai voices already there or generate a new one without cloning someone without permission.
 
WTF it doesn't even make sense!
Nobody cares about the voice of an automated gaming commentary. Why expose yourself legally like that? Use a fucking generic voice or pay for it!

There are voices available online or train a model with the HQ's receptionist and be done with it.
 
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