French voice actress Françoise Cadol has accused Aspyr Media of using artificial intelligence to replicate her voice in the new Tomb Raider remasters. Cadol is the French voice behind Lara Croft and has now filed a legal notice against Aspyr, requesting the remasters to be pulled from stores.
As per Game Developer (via Le Parisian), French voice actress Françoise Cadol has accused Aspyr Media of creating an AI replica of her voice without her permission.
The replicated voice has been put in place of her original voice work in the new Tomb Raider IV, V, and VI remasters, which came out in February of this year. However, it appears the AI-replicated voice lines were added after the fact, with Cadol claiming she was notified of them by players after an Aug. 14 update.
She has since filed a legal notice against Aspyr, who is owned by Embracer, requesting the remasters to be pulled from stores until the issue is resolved. Cadol is being represented by lawyer Jonathan Elkaim, who Game Developer describes as an expert in IP and AI.
“You immediately notice that there's a very strong metallic impact, it's very choppy, lacking in intonation, or on the contrary, poorly performed,” Elkaim claimed, with Cadol herself saying Aspyr “disrespected” its player base with these additions.
This is yet another case of artificial intelligence harming actual artists. Though the SAG-AFTRA protests in the United States yielded positive results regarding protections from AI, the rest of the world isn't as fortunate, at least not yet, and we'll probably see an uptick in cases such as these as AI tools continue to develop and evolve.
Destructoid has reached out to Aspyr Media for a comment, and will update this article with additional information as it becomes available.
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The post OG Lara Croft voice actress accuses Aspyr of using AI to replicate her voice without permission appeared first on Destructoid.
