A VOICEOVER artist has demanded ScotRail stop using her voice in its artificial intelligence announcements – claiming it has been used without permission.
Gayanne Potter said she felt “violated” because she did not give permission for her voice to be used in the way it has by the company contracted by the state-owned rail company.
Her voice has been used to train the new AI-generated announcements on ScotRail trains – something the Swedish tech company ReadSpeaker was covered in their contract.
But in a Facebook post, Potter said: “I discovered last week that ScotRail’s new horrible AI train announcer Iona is in fact using my voice data – and nobody told me.
“I have been in dispute with a company in Sweden, ReadSpeaker, for over two years to get my voice data removed from their website.”
The voiceover artist, whose credits include work for CBBC, Heart Scotland and STV, said that her understanding of her arrangement with ReadSpeaker was to “provide text to speech recordings to be used for translation purposes from foreign language copy pasted into their site, and as an accessibility tool for people with visual impairment”.
Potter added: “So imagine my distress when I discover that ScotRail have installed the ReadSpeaker model Iona that contains my biometric voice data as their new announcer on their trains.
“I did not know. I was not asked. I did not consent. I was not given a choice.
“Four years ago, we didn’t have the AI we use now. You cannot consent to something that doesn’t exist. You should be able to withdraw your consent at any point. Readspeaker won’t let me.”
She said that her issue with the company was “not about money”, adding: “It’s about my identity. I feel violated.
“ScotRail should employ a real human irrespective of who it is. Why continue to choose a dreadful AI version of me when I’m right here – and I know how to pronounce Milngavie?”
Iona, the name given to ScotRail’s AI announcer, has been used on some routes including those north of Inverness and its high-speed, inter-city services over the last 10 months.
A spokesperson for the company said: “It would be a matter for Ms Potter to take up with ReadSpeaker, who her contract is with. We have no plans to remove the voice from our trains.”
ReadSpeaker chief marketing officer Roy Lindemann said: "We are aware of Ms Potter’s concerns. ReadSpeaker and Ms Potter have a contract regarding the use of her voice.
“ReadSpeaker has comprehensively addressed Ms Potter’s concerns with her legal representative several times in the past."
