As AI-generated voices get better and cheaper, voice actors across Europe are urging the EU to introduce new rules to protect their jobs.
The rise of global streaming platforms such as Netflix, which relies heavily on dubbing to make hits such as Squid Game and Lupin, has amplified demand for AI-generated voices.
Consumer research firm GWI says 43 percent of viewers in Germany, France, Italy and Britain prefer dubbed content over subtitles.
The market is expected to grow to $4.3 billion (€3.6 million) in 2025, reaching $7.6 billion (€8.8 million) by 2033, according to Business Research Insights.
Voice actor Boris Rehlinger – the French voice of Ben Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix and even Puss in Boots – is fighting to keep his craft alive in the age of AI.
"I feel threatened even though my voice hasn't been replaced by AI yet," the actor told Reuters. He's part of a French initiative, TouchePasMaVF, to protect human-created dubbing from artificial intelligence.
The collective says AI should not replace the human touch in creative work for the sake of profit.
"However powerful and sophisticated they may be, algorithms can only create simulacra and, if we are not careful, can reinforce discriminatory biases present in the content they feed on," he collective said.
Petition in Germany
Rehlinger insists there must be legislation. "Just as after the car, which replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we need a highway code," he said.
In Germany, 12 well-known dubbing actors went viral on TikTok in March, garnering 8.7 million views, for their campaign saying "Let's protect artistic, not artificial, intelligence".
A petition from the VDS voice actors' association calling on German and EU lawmakers to push AI companies to obtain explicit consent when training the technology on artists' voices and fairly compensate them, as well as transparently label AI-generated content, gained more than 75,500 signatures.
‘By humans, for humans’: French dubbing industry speaks out against AI threat
When intellectual property is no longer protected, no one will produce anything anymore "because they think 'tomorrow it will be stolen from me anyway'," said Cedric Cavatore, a VDS member who has dubbed films and video games including the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII Remake.
VDS collaborates with United Voice Artists, a global network of more than 20,000 voice actors advocating for ethical AI use and fair contracts.
Eberhard Weckerle, managing director of the Neue Tonfilm Muenchen studio, hopes AI and human dubbing can one day coexist.
"The fear is that AI will be used to make something as cheap as possible and then people will say: 'Okay, I'll accept that I'll have poorer quality'. And that would actually be the worst thing that could happen to us," said the sound engineer whose studio worked on the German version of Conclave and is currently dubbing Guy Ritchie's new film.
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Huge interest
Stefan Sporn, CEO of Audio Innovation Lab, which used AI to dub the 2024 Cannes Film Festival entry Black Dog from Chinese to German, believes AI will reshape, but not replace, voice work.
Humans will always be needed for emotion, scripting, and language nuance, he said, "just not to the same extent".
Audio Innovation Lab's technology alters the original actor's voice to match the target language, aiming for authenticity and efficiency.
"Interest is huge," said Sporn, adding that producers, studios and advertisers all want to know how well it works.
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Another start-up, Flawless AI, bills itself as an ethical AI company that works with local voice actors and uses its technology to match the on-screen actor's lip movements to the different languages.
"When AI technologies are used in the right way, they are a silver bullet to change how we can film-make in a new way," co-CEO Scott Mann said.
Despite the disquiet over that series, other potential viewers seem more sanguine. According to GWI, nearly half of viewers said their opinion would not change if they learned that the content they liked was generated by AI.
Some 25 percent said they would like it slightly less, and only 3 percent said they would like it much more.
(with Reuters)
