Everything from your smart speaker to your favorite chatbot could sound awfully familiar one of these days. Meta is reportedly reaching out to celebrities to have them contribute their voices to future AI projects.
Shared by the our sister site Tech Radar, the social media giant is offering millions of dollars to various celebrities in exchange for the rights to use their voices to train AI voice clones. Some of the mentioned names include Awkwafina, Judi Dench, and Keegan-Michael Kay.
The voices are meant to be used in the digital assistant product MetaAI, reports the New York Times. Allegedly, Meta is in talks with many of the big talent agencies in Hollywood.
As of this writing, it is unclear how many famous individuals are being considered for the project or who might actually sign up. Sources told the Times that Meta could pay millions in fees to any actors that do agree.
It may be a hard sell, since the Screen Actors Guild just went on strike last year against Hollywood studios over a number of issues including protections against AI labor or AI likenesses. That said, there are reports from unnamed sources that SAG-AFTRA has reached an agreement with Meta on terms.
A Bloomberg report claimed that Meta is looking to lock down celebrity voices before the company's Connect 2024 event in September, mostly so the company can have time to develop AI tools utilizing the voices in time for the event.
What the company wants to do with the voice rights is unclear at this time.
Last year, Meta unveiled a bevy AI characters based on celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady and Paris Hilton who leant their faces to AI characters — Snoop Dogg as a DND Dungeon Master or soccer star Sam Kerr as a calming, free-spirited friend. Those chatbots were text-only and have since dropped their celebrity faces.
AI and actor voices is not without controversy. Earlier this year, OpenAI revealed GPT-4o with a voice option that sounded suspiciously like Scarlett Johansson. That voice was removed after Johansson moved to take legal action against the AI firm.
And as of this writing, SAG-AFTRA is specifically on strike against video game companies over disagreements regarding worker protections involving AI. The union is seeking protections for both voice actors and motion-capture performers.
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