Skyream: voice actors displeased by smutty game mods using AI to clone their voices

NSFW mods for open-world classic Skyrim use AI tools to clone the voices of the game's original actors. The reproduction of their voices–their bread and butter–was done without permission.

The National Association of Voice Actors tweeted in response: "The damage to voice actors and game companies by AI and synthetic voices is real and tangible," proceeding to tag both Bethesda Studios and Zenimax Online, writing: "voice actors don't have the legal ability to fight this, but you can help."

The wider voice acting community has also rallied to decry the mods. Linsay Rousseau of Transformers: War for Cybertron, Deathloop, and Fallout 76 quote tweeted: "Voice Actors don't consent to this. If you're using these mods, you're stealing & abusing our work."

Jennifer Hale, voice of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect Series, also tweeted: "to make this CRYSTAL clear: if you do not have written permission to use my voice, you DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION to use my voice, including AI use."

The host of the mods, Nexus Mods, invited artists to turn in formal complaints, but I get the feeling from from its blog post on the matter that it hasn't sought legal advice on copyright and personality rights. Statements such as "we will be keeping a close eye on any legal precedents set as this technology matures and may update our policies" rather invites someone to make it the precedent.