For Hollywood A-listers, having a cloned voice double could become as common as having a stunt double, an AI expert has told Sky News.
While both the BAFTAs and Oscars annually celebrate craftsmanship and creativity, off-screen this award season a battle for votes has played out with some industry voices critical of the seemingly secretive way in which the technology is being deployed.
Brady Corbet, the director of 10-time Oscar nominee The Brutalist, has found himself having to clarify to Deadline how actors Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones “worked for months” with a dialect coach “to perfect their accents” – but that artificial intelligence was also used in post-production to ensure a cleaner edit of some of their Hungarian vowel sounds.
Emilia Perez, A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two have also been drawn into the debate for using AI in some way.
While on the other side of the debate, Hugh Grant‘s horror Heretic provocatively declared on its end credits: “No generative AI was used in the making of this film.”
‘Horrendous’ dubbing may be a thing of the past
Ausrine Skarnulyte, the chief executive of an AI company called Voice-Swap, said the film industry needed to understand “the genie is out of the bottle”.
“We’re seeing increased adoption across the film and TV industry even though at the moment no one’s really talking about it, at least not as loudly as they would like to admit.”
“Voice doubles is essentially where the technology is going,” she insisted.
Not only would allowing their voice to be officially cloned for a project potentially save actors time, but crucially it could save studios money.
Skarnulyte said: “Any sound engineer with access to official AI voice models can then do post-production edits when the actor is not in the studio, without needing them to come back and re-record lines.”
According to Skarnulyte, who is originally from Lithuania, another benefit is how it transforms dubbing a film into a different language.
“I grew up watching Steven Spielberg, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger 80s action movies, and the narration itself… the dubbing was horrendous.
“With this technology, we could build Antonio Banderas’ voice to speak in any language… it serves so that you could mimic someone’s natural voice pretty easily.”
Sky correspondent’s AI voice experience
How quickly can it be done? In less than a day, using a 45-minute recording of my speech, the team at Voice-Swap were able to create a basic AI version of me.
It is an unsettling experience to hear myself suddenly fluent in Lithuanian. The timbre and tone of what they demo sounds just like me and even has, I’m told, a slight British lilt to keep things authentic.
Mastering even the basics of a language for an actor, like this, would take months – this has required zero learning on my part.
While some may assume it instantly puts out of work those who’ve made careers out of redubbing stars for different territories, that actually isn’t the case.
Skarnulyte explained that she used recordings of herself speaking Lithuanian and then voice-to-voice AI conversion, effectively grafting my voice onto hers.
Establishing the boundaries, she said, is most important.
“You need to make sure that it’s used within the professional setting, that there is clear attribution in place, that there is transparent data set.”
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Opposition to growing AI influence
But not everyone is convinced that the pros outweigh the cons.
Actor John Magaro, who stars in the Munich Olympics thriller September 5, said the creeping influence of AI is “a frightening thing”.
He told Sky News earlier this year: “I wouldn’t encourage anyone to become an actor nowadays. It’s daunting, I don’t know where it’s heading.”
According to industry publication Variety, declaring what AI is in your film will be mandatory at next year’s Oscars.
“There’s talk of putting in a requirement that you have to disclose your use of AI, which is not a bad idea,” deputy awards and features editor Jenelle Riley told Sky News.
She added: “We disclose everything: no animals were harmed on set, we list all of the artists who worked on a movie…as long as everyone is transparent and it’s ok with the actors and everyone involved then AI can be a really useful tool.”
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From visual effects to script analysis, AI is already being used within the industry.
While that might be scary for some, those who are working with AI argue it needs to be seen as a collaborator, not a competitor, in the creative process.
As Skarnulyte explained: “This is where we need to define the relationship between the tech and the creative industries.
“AI is already here and now it’s just a matter of time – we either take it into our hands and we control it, or it will control us.”
