Financial News Agency, May 17 (Editor Niu Zhanlin) In 2020, American voice actor Paul Lehrman accepted a job to provide a set of one-time voice samples. A few years later, he was heard narrating his own voice on YouTube videos and podcasts, although he never lent his voice to those videos. Coincidentally, the same thing happened to others.
Just on Thursday Eastern Time, Lehrman and another voice actor Linnea Sage filed a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Lovo in New York federal court, accusing the company of illegally copying and using their AI voiceover technology. sound.
They claimed that Lovo sold AI versions of their voices without permission after tricking them into providing voice samples. The two actors are also trying to unite other people whose voices have been stolen and then launch a class action lawsuit.
Recently, a series of legal actions have been filed against various technology companies by creatives, writers and artists who say that their work is used without their permission to train AI systems that may eventually compete with them. The actor's lawsuit is just the latest. Lawsuits like
have heightened concerns about AI model training, which requires large amounts of data and could violate copyright and intellectual property laws. lovo publicizes that AI-generated speech technology will be used for marketing, education and product demonstrations. The
complaint mentioned that there is an implicit condition in the services provided by Lovo to its customers, that is, each voice actor has agreed that Lovo's customers can access and use the actor's voice. But for Lehrman and Sage, as well as others who have not agreed to Lovo's terms, the continued unauthorized use of plaintiffs' voices constitutes theft and improper use of services. ’
lehrman noted that in May 2020, he received a request for narration services on a gig site from an account named “user25199087.” When he asked what the voice samples would be used for, he was told they would be used "only for academic research purposes and for no other purpose," according to the complaint. Lehrman was paid $1,200 for that service.
Later, Lehrman saw a video on YouTube that sounded like he was narrating in his voice, even though he had never participated in its creation. He also heard his voice used on a podcast describing the dangers of AI technology.
Similarly, according to the complaint, Sage was given a job in 2019 to create an "ad test script." She was told that the relevant test content would not be disclosed to the public, and she was paid $400. Later, she discovered a recording on YouTube of Lovo investors demonstrating their technology, and the voice belonged to Sage himself.
lehrman and Sage claimed that the people who originally contacted them were employees of Lovo, and then the company falsely claimed that their voice samples would be used for research or testing purposes, but were later used by the AI company as a means of violating the rules. "To be clear, the products customers purchased from Lovo were stolen property and marketed by the company under false pretenses."
The voice actors are seeking more than $5 million in damages and a court order to prevent lovo continues to use their sound.
(Financial Associated Press Niu Zhanlin)
