Many of my students ask me: what’s the future of voice-acting, now that Artificial Intelligence is here? The short answer is that being human will never go out of style…but there are challenges.
For those of you who don’t know what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is with regards to voice acting, it’s a process by which software is able to compile voice samples (sometimes created for the platform, or sometimes pulled from existing recordings) into a cohesive “voice”, that can then be used to “read” any script – and it’s showing up in a lot of places.
There is only one problem with the AI voice trend: audiences hate it.
What happens when you go to a story-telling platform, be it YouTube, a podcast, or an audiobook, and you sense the voice is synthetic? The immediate response is a lack of trust and an inability to relate.
Human connection is a core element of any kind of art – storytelling is an expression of human emotion and experience that has existed for millennia that synthetic voices simply cannot tap into.
Lack of genuine emotion is AI’s biggest weakness, and our biggest strength as voice actors.
Many AI narrations have no natural pausing, unnatural inflection, and jumbled words. They completely lack emotion, and directability is a challenge.
Despite these shortcomings, AI voices do have a couple of distinct advantages. First, they can be cheaper than hiring a human being (though the costs vary depending on the software, not to mention the environmental costs related to all the computing power these models use), and second, they don’t require advance planning or turnaround time, they can be created basically in an instant.
So, what can we do as voice actors to combat the growing AI voice culture?
The first thing is not to allow your voice to be cloned.
Sometimes, voice actors get offers to do AI projects. In the excitement of getting your first voice-over job, the reality of what may happen to your uniquely wonderful identity isn’t fully apparent.
When you sell your voice to an AI company, it is fed into a model that is trained to replicate your voice, analyzing your speech patterns and characteristics, which can then be used to read any script.
What can possibly go wrong?
Your voice can also be sliced, diced, and mixed with other clones to achieve the perfect synthesized, soulless sound so prevalent today.
Ironically, the one thing that casting directors value most – our humanity – is lost.
Human intuition will always be able to sniff out an AI voice because these voices will always lack the ability to go with a creative impulse during a performance, connect with a script on an emotional level, and relate to the listener’s humanity.
As an actor, be willing to take risks in a scene. Be vulnerable and spontaneous in every script you do, and your voice will stand out in a growing landscape of synthetic voices. As more and more of these emotionless voices get used, the more a real human voice will grow in value, because audiences will always crave authenticity, emotion, and empathy – things AI voices will never be able to deliver.
P.S. If you haven’t yet taken our introductory voice-over class, where we go over everything one needs to know about getting started in the voice-over industry, sign up here!
