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Voice Actor Henry Schrader: "Hi-Rez Studio... Have Stated That They Will Be Using AI To Clone Voices

Vash

Vash

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,914
Well, fuck this shitty shit. If you still play Paladins and or Smite, please stop. A company putting these terrrible practices to work should not be supported.


View: https://twitter.com/HenrySchraderVO/status/1692216698307293381

Screenshots for those who don't have Twitter anymore.

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stopmrdomino

stopmrdomino

Member
Jun 25, 2023
5,159
i can't believe the company that thrived off of making worse versions of popular games is creatively bankrupt enough to do this
 
SirKai

SirKai

Member
Dec 28, 2017
7,840
Washington
This shit is so awful and dystopic. I always liked to view Hi-Rez as something of an "underdog" studio, and I enjoyed Smite back in 2015, but man, fuck that company.

That said, this lone tweet is the only source right? Hopefully someone else can corroborate this.
 
Harpoon

Harpoon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,656
SirKai said:
This shit is so awful and dystopic. I always liked to view Hi-Rez as something of an "underdog" studio, and I enjoyed Smite back in 2015, but man, fuck that company.

That said, this lone tweet is the only source right? Hopefully someone else can corroborate this.
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A lot of VAs might be limited in how much they can say due to Hi-Rez's weaponizing NDAs, but seeing this, I'm pretty sure this recent tweet from Stephanie Sheh about a game studio using AI voice clones is about Hi-Rez:


View: https://x.com/stephaniesheh/status/1687583500864733185?s=46&t=KIrRSq_FvgtSnPPjR9OOwg
 
Dust

Dust

C H A O S
Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,049
So does everyone just give up and fold on the AI overtaking everything? Is outright penalization and ban on AI needed?
 
Snagret

Snagret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,898
I know AI is the future and we all need to just lay down and accept it or whatever but I refuse to support any media that utilizes AI technology to replace human labor.
 
Bodhi

Bodhi

Member
Oct 5, 2022
1,648
Hi-Rez is such a talented studio that has been marred in shitty business practices...
 
shodgson8

shodgson8

Shinra Employee
Member
Aug 22, 2018
4,356
Not surprised. Never forgave them after what they did to Tribes Ascend.

Trash company, do not play or recommend their games.
 
hobblygobbly

hobblygobbly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,763
NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
that's how hi-rez is and as a massive fan of the Tribes IP it makes me mad they bought the IP and then made Tribes: Ascend which was actually fucking good and had a strong community, then killed the game (like they do of all their games), and the IP just sitting dormant. fuck hi-rez
 
the lizard

the lizard

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,916
add me to the list of "well I would boycott them if there was any chance of me playing their games in the first place, but…"
 
Barrel Cannon

Barrel Cannon

It's Pronounced "Aerith"
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
9,524
As someone who has sunk 100s of hours and tons of money on skins in Rogue Company over the years I'll seize playing & streaming the game and buying any skins until they revert this.
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
Any company that wants to do shit like this deserves to fail.
 
boontobias

boontobias

Avenger
Apr 14, 2018
9,688
It's ridiculous how these world-altering decisions are driven by executives, shareholders, and pencil pushers never any engineers, creatives, artists, or anyone of talent
 
zerosnake99

zerosnake99

Member
Oct 25, 2018
1,148
Hi-Rez continues to be one of the worst companies. Between them destroying Tribes, to having absolutely terrible employees, and now this? Please, continue to set the bar lower.
 
RadzPrower

RadzPrower

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 19, 2018
6,150
Dust said:
So does everyone just give up and fold on the AI overtaking everything? Is outright penalization and ban on AI needed?
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I don't know that it would need to go that strict if companies would be honest about what they're doing and the actors knew they were training A.I. and that it would be isolated to a certain aspect of an individual game (ex. a new character is added and they need to add a line to reference that character). At least that would give actors the chance to actively avoid contracts that have A.I. clauses...assuming we definitely make it illegal to train an A.I. without the original actor/author/artist's consent.
 
wrowa

wrowa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,414
Cloning a VA's voice is so evil. I wonder if the employees who make and execute these decisions are somehow lying to themselves that doing this is actually okay. That you are using a VA's own voice work to literally put them out of a job is already bad enough, but on top of that the AI imitation is even actively devaluing their voice, since people are bound to associate their voice with soulless shit an AI generated.
 
Katbobo

Katbobo

Member
May 3, 2022
5,659
That's incredibly fucked.

The way it's worded make it sounds like there was wording in the contracts that anyone who previously did voice work for them is now legally allowed to have Hi-Rez use their voice and clone it without consent? Is that correct? If so, that's profoundly fucked.
 
Powerofthecloud

Powerofthecloud

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,489
I think eventually all AI for entertainment or knowledge will have to credit the sources used to represent whatever it creates. It's just a matter of when. The catalyst is going to be though probably not from people suing but large companies going circular in copyright infringement. We are in the mp3 Nester days of what AI is where it's just a fucking free for all.
 
PaladinCharge

PaladinCharge

Member
Nov 17, 2017
492
My friends and I had already jumped ship from Paladins to Gundam Evolution (sigh), but I really liked that game. Honestly I like it better than Overwatch, and at the time it seemed like Hi-Rez was a less problematic underdog company next to Blizzard and Riot so I was happy to support it. Probably won't come back to Paladins after this, unless something changes, a real bummer.

Honestly all the talk of them making bad knockoffs of bigger games is pretty eyeroll-inducing to me. If a big company does it, it's par for the course, but a smaller one? Fuck 'em. Smite even was even pretty unique as far as MOBAs go with its TPS angle.
zerosnake99 said:
Hi-Rez continues to be one of the worst companies. Between them destroying Tribes, to having absolutely terrible employees, and now this? Please, continue to set the bar lower.
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Ooc what's the deal with this? I hadn't heard anything about shitty employees, although I haven't exactly had my ear to the ground on anything like that
 
AgeEighty

AgeEighty

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,008
We need protection laws and we need them yesterday. This shit is running rampant because government is full of old white men who are tech illiterate and we're in that Wild West window between when the tech explodes and when the law catches up.
 
Harpoon

Harpoon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,656
AlexBasch

AlexBasch

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,370
Hold up.

You sign the NDA. Then a contract? Is that even legal?

I know I sound really naive here, but it sounds like a huge advantage/loophole that would be abused by every company hiring talent.
 
oxymoron

oxymoron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
821
AlexBasch said:
Hold up.

You sign the NDA. Then a contract? Is that even legal?

I know I sound really naive here, but it sounds like a huge advantage/loophole that would be abused by every company hiring talent.
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It's legal to make someone sign an NDA to view a contract, sure.

Whether the NDA is valid or enforceable, eh, very good chance that the answer is no. Contracts are only enforceable if both parties receive something of value from them.
 
evilromero

evilromero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,547
I expect a lot of indie devs and small studios will turn to AI voiceovers because it's cheaper, easier and nobody will really care.
 
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