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Ninja Theory, other triple-A devs reportedly using AI voice acting tech over people (Ninja Threory Responds. See Threadmarks)

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Angie

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Instead of professional voice actors, Ninja Theory and Neon Giant have allegedly opted to use AI voice acting in their games.
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A new report from Good Luck Have Fun reveals that multiple triple-A game developers are using an AI program for voice acting in lieu of human talent. The company behind the technology is Altered AI, which contains a library of vocal performances, including around 20 professional voice actors.
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Though it shares similarities with text-to-speech, which reads sentences back in audio, AI voice acting is considered more ethically dicey. As there are tools that can change a voice actor's tone and voice type, there have been concerns that the technology could be used to supplant voice actors entirely.
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NDAs mean that only two developers are explicitly named in the report: Hellblade developer Ninja Theory allegedly has a partnership with Altered. Additionally, Neon Giant reportedly used Altered for the voice acting in its 2021 game, The Ascent.
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"These new technologies offer exciting new opportunities but can also pose potential threats to performers' livelihoods. It is crucial that performers control exploitation of their digital self, be properly compensated for its use, and be able to provide informed consent," wrote SAG-AFTRA.
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What does AI mean for voice actors and their image?​


For Lowenthal, the worry is expressly about software like this being used to exploit actors' talents in games that they otherwise wouldn't be compensated for performing in.
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"I know an actor who does a lot of performance capture and voice work and she has seen her very specific movement show up in games she never even worked on," he said. "This is a scary precedent that has already been set, and I want to start a conversation with AI companies about how we could protect actors, and again, the ecosystem of storytelling."
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The technology is typically used for prototyping purposes, according to Altered CEO Ioannis Agiomyrgiannakis, who argued that his company was doing for voice acting what YouTube has done for video.

"When you have a dialogue, you have a level of imagination. But when you take the dialogue to the voice actors, it comes back and doesn't sound as dynamic as you wanted it to," explained Agiomyrgiannakis. "We provide an intermediate step where they can prototype the dialogue and have a checkpoint before they hit the studio."
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More at the link: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busin...rtedly-using-ai-voice-acting-tech-over-people
 
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Deleted member 93062

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I cannot wait till AI voice acting tech improves a ton. It'll be huge for indies, think we're really going to start seeing mini-AAA games from indie developers in the near future thanks to tools like this and Metahuman. Glad to see so much investment in it.
 
Rats

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I mean, yeah. From a purely pragmatic perspective it makes complete sense to use it for incidental dialogue at the very least.

Strange times we're heading into as AI advances.
 
Teamocil

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I mean, for huge games like RPGs, i don't really see an issue with NPCs being AI generated. There's thousands of lines to be read, and AI likely makes that process much faster/cheaper.

But for main/secondary characters, voice actors all the way.

As someone else mentioned, indies will likely benefit from this.
 
PlanetSmasher

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Fuck any dev that does this. "let's use AI as a digital scab to replace real voice actors!"

ESPECIALLY in the AAA sphere, you have no excuse. Hire actual talent or don't make the fucking game.
 
Wrexis

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Nov 4, 2017
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I'm not too surprised about this after Vader's voice in newer Star Wars stuff is allegedly AI. Apparently James Earl Jones recorded the bible in the 80s and they use that for learning.

Didn't expect it so soon for games though.
 
chiller

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Sullivan said:
I cannot wait till AI voice acting tech improves a ton. It'll be huge for indies, think we're really going to start seeing mini-AAA games from indie developers in the near future thanks to all these tools. Glad to see so much investment in it.
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Yeah, I'm not going to be excited that a bunch of people are about to be deprived of work. You do you though.
 
Kolx

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I assume voices used for learning are consented from actors, and not lifted whole sale from their previous work?
 
delete12345

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PlanetSmasher said:
Fuck any dev that does this. "let's use AI as a digital scab to replace real voice actors!"

ESPECIALLY in the AAA sphere, you have no excuse. Hire actual talent or don't make the fucking game.
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It's already out on the market.

This tech is already out there. If you've played The Ascent, a recent twin-stick shooter set in a cyberpunk world, you've already played a game that features AI voices.
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Source (Doesn't unfurl links):

 
pswii60

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I don't play games for the voice acting, I play them for the gameplay. If this helps curb the ridiculous costs of AAA development somewhat, and helps smaller devs where they would previously have had text only, then so be it. But you know, I'm the sort of person who hates cutscenes so.. don't think my opinion has any validity lol.
 
shoemasta

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Sullivan said:
I cannot wait till AI voice acting tech improves a ton. It'll be huge for indies, think we're really going to start seeing mini-AAA games from indie developers in the near future thanks to tools like this and Metahuman. Glad to see so much investment in it.
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Not when this is happening:

"I know an actor who does a lot of performance capture and voice work and she has seen her very specific movement show up in games she never even worked on," he said. "This is a scary precedent that has already been set, and I want to start a conversation with AI companies about how we could protect actors, and again, the ecosystem of storytelling."
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Raigor

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May 14, 2020
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PlanetSmasher said:
Fuck any dev that does this. "let's use AI as a digital scab to replace real voice actors!"

ESPECIALLY in the AAA sphere, you have no excuse. Hire actual talent or don't make the fucking game.
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With games costing $100-150 million to make, this is one way to lower the costs.

Algorithms and AI are already being used for other stuff in games.
 
Kalor

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It's extremely shitty but also was inevitable that developers would try and cut costs with VA. Especially for the incidental NPC dialogue that you would overhear that I imagine will be the main use in the near term. The technology is admittedly interesting but it comes at the cost of people losing work opportunities so fuck it.
 
Tagyhag

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I'm all for indie devs using this but AAA devs seems rather cheap.

That said, maybe AI tech will get good enough that voice actors can charge for their voice to be used?
 
PlanetSmasher

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BabyDontHurtMe said:
Anything to save money and not employ unionized labor in a highly capitalistic industry.
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And then the same people will cry and complain about how they aren't being treated fairly by their publishers and how they should unionize.

I'm all for collective bargaining, but to act like YOUR part of the industry deserves to unionize while the people you hire to be in your games DON'T is just absolute garbage. Everyone deserves fair treatment, and that includes actors.
 
Nexus2049

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It's shitty for talent to have less opportunity, but I do understand the move to A.I. in order to cut down on increased costs.
 
march_in_march

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Oct 25, 2017
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Sadly, AI will be used more and more for stuff like this to cut costs. I hate it but it's just the reality of things.
 

Uzuzu

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Nov 18, 2017
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It's just a tool, like ai foliage/map generation. Did people care that that was putting environmental artists out of work? Ai will most likely touch all artistic aspects at some point. Can see with the ai art stuff happening now
 
Black_Stride

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Was this not known about The Ascent?

No way The Ascent gets all the voices in their game with the budget they had.
Was Ninja Theory using it for Hellblade 2 or some other project?
 
Grenchel

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With AI generation does the content they source get any royalty? Like, are they just grabbing data from wherever they want to generate new voice lines?
 
Yeona

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Uzuzu said:
It's just a tool, like ai foliage/map generation. Did people care that that was putting environmental artists out of work? Ai will most likely touch all artistic aspects at some point. Can see with the ai art stuff happening now
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There still are environment artists, what do you mean?
 
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