The Effect of AI on the Voice over Industry
There certainly has been a lot of talk, energy and focus about the effect of AI on the voice over industry, so I felt it important to weigh in as it certainly caught my attention to say the least being that I’m a full time voice actor and currently own a voice over school with my partner Noel Johansen who you’ll hear from later on in this essay.
To start off I want to acknowledge the fact that I am sitting at a particularly good vantage point to have an opinion. I have been a professional voice actor for 28 years having worked on productions in every facet of the entertainment business from animation with Marvel and Disney, to commercial campaigns with some of the biggest brands and ad agencies in the world, to video games with companies like EA and Ubisoft and some of the biggest networks/streaming platforms in the world for narration and promo including NBC, The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic and Cartoon Network. I say all of this not to brag but only to say that I have, week in and week out for the past close to three decades been on the pulse of the voice over industry as a voice actor and voice over school owner and that gives me a perspective that is comprehensive, measured and grounded.
Ever since the news came out that ‘AI’ is going to have a direct impact on the voice over business I have objected to the way these stories have been told by the news outlets (networks, newspapers and online articles). It appears to be coming from a place of fear and an almost “you need to be worried about your livelihood” vibe – which of course is going to ‘trigger’ people’s fears, rather than a ‘here are the facts and you decide’ approach. There’s almost this romantic play on “the terminator is coming” ‘hollywoodization’ of the story. I’m not saying that some stories/articles aren’t well informed and speaking to the right people, but it almost appears that the press is looking for an angle to sell their story and it appears that that angle is uninformed and speculative. And that’s for AI stories regarding all industries, it feels like they are spinning from a “the aliens are coming, the aliens are coming” slant rather than from an evidential point of view. Because with any major transformative change to an entire industry it would be best from my standpoint to gather the data and then speak from an educated point of view rather than establishing a point of view and working backwards and being completely speculative.
So I’d like to examine the situation from the macro and move into the micro. Disney’s first cartoon ‘Steamboat Willie’ featuring Mickey Mouse was released in November of 1928, so let’s say for good measure that the voice over business is 100 years old. Currently there is more work in the voice over business than there ever has been. More movies, tv shows, commercials, streaming platforms, online videos, video games, audiobooks, and many other genres of voice over that are available to be voiced right now in multiple languages, nationalities and genders. That is effectively the baseline of where we’re starting this discussion. Is the ecosystem of voice over completely healthy and delivering a meritocracy to its pursuers? I’m not sure, it’s certainly not perfect – but it is a great business to get into for people who want to express themselves professionally.
If you read my last essay “The Voice over Ecosystem” you will get that I have broken down the business into 3 tiers of possible work. The Low tier represents jobs from the $50 to $250 range that you would win from platforms like Fiverr, Voice bunny, Upwork, Voices.com, Voice123.com, your own clients and so on. The Mid Level Tier is for the $250 to $750 range for jobs that you would win from platforms like voices.com, voice123.com, agents and your own clients. The High end Tier is for the $750 to $100,000 and beyond range per job, this is mostly from agents or high level jobs from the P2P sites that are ongoing campaigns, series, big games, trailers, and so on.
Where I believe AI will have no effect whatsoever is with the mid to high level career and here’s why: Major production companies and movie studios like Marvel, Pixar and Disney are not going to sink their millions of dollars and extraordinary amounts of time into a production only to have it be represented by an artificial voice, one that is not connected to a soul or a life experience. Marvel, Pixar, Disney and major ad agencies understand that humans are wired to be told stories by other ‘humans’ and that connection is what keeps us engaged. That is why they wouldn’t risk the possibility of losing their audience in order to save the 1 to 5% of their budget that they would save if they went with an artificial voice. Because that’s what the voice talent budget is on most productions (minus using a star voice like Morgan Freeman). Are they going to risk it all for a 1 to 5% savings on a voice that doesn’t deliver what we’re used to receiving from a human performance for the past hundred years? I don’t think so. Not to mention the directability factor, having been in situations whereby you have to pivot on the fly with direction from the voice director, that is not something that the higher ups, (producers and directors) are going to want to give up in their workflow, they want a voice actor who can say – oh yeah – gotcha “like when I said goodbye to my daughter for 2 weeks when she went off to camp for the first time” – more like that? Only a human being can understand that nuance.
In fact, in recent a conversation that my business partner, Noel, had with an agent who attended a conference on the potential effects of AI, one of the animation producers on the panel confirmed the importance of “directability,” noting: AI may help animation creators create pitches more cheaply, but at the end of the day, the voice of a character on a series or movie is a product of collaboration between humans who interact and collectively, through direction, create the character and record the story.
The other part of the macro argument is the fandom, the audience, who are they going to connect with at the cons if there is an artificial voice as the lead character in the animated series? The answer is no one. And the truth is that fans love connecting with the actual person who played the part. I have been a guest at many cons and had conversations with fans about the characters that I’ve played and how that made a difference in their life. That will be non-existent in an artificial voiced world. There is also the consideration of the infrastructure and systemic workflow that has been developed over a 100 years in our business between actors, agents, casting, voice directors, producers, engineers, studio owners and post production facilities – all of these wonderfully creative people really depend on the way they work together and to create an entirely new way of working seems unrealistic.
On the Micro side of the argument, where I think AI will affect the voice over business is in 3 places. The Low Tier work, for pitching projects and the use of scratch tracks. I just did a session the other day where the producer said “oh btw the scratch track you hear is an AI voice” and I said “oh that’s cool, I guess I’ll never lose another job to the scratch voice if it’s an artificial voice”. I can’t tell you how many times I have lost a potential job to the scratch track that was laid down by an engineer, writer or someone in the office (literally) only for the client to not be able to get past their love for that scratch voice. AI will also give ‘up and coming’ creators, writers, producers the chance to pitch their projects with AI voices in order to save on budget and if that gives those creatives more opportunities then I’m all for it. Because that only means that there’s another series or commercial campaign coming down the pipe that otherwise wouldn’t have been there. In terms of the lower tiered work, I do believe that AI’s ability to replicate a voice and spit out speech that is clear and more transactional/clinical rather than humanistic and soulful, will allow it to be used for lots of text to speech applications for news articles, e-learning modules, employee training etc. But the reality about it’s impact on the lower tier is that it will only get a seat at the table of the lower tier work, it will not absorb and take over that work, because even in the lower tiers, buyers are of course going to still want a human voice to represent their brand, their video, their creative endeavor. I think that AI will become a competitor to Fiverr and Voice bunny, but the voice over performers who are still delivering a good performance will still find there is an abundance of work. In some ways it may make voice over performers pull up their socks and dig into their performances to ensure that they will stay competitive in the lower tier. It’s similar to the stock trading world, when online trading platforms like Ameritrade and Questrade popped up, stock brokers were fearing that people would no longer want to work with a human being and just trade on their own with these trading platforms. Guess what? The only thing that all of those trading platforms got was a seat at the table. Stock brokers did not lose their jobs, in fact there are continual records being broken year after year in the trading/investing world, with the number of unicorns and the amount of global venture capital there is in the world, so it clearly did get a seat at the table, but had no impact on the overall.
And that is all I’m trying to get at, I think that artificial voices will get a seat at the table for the lower tiered work but they are in no way going to eviscerate a business that has been around for a 100 years with literally millions of people making it work on a daily business. What I think AI will do is subdivide audiences into sectors of people that don’t care if their NPC character is an artificial voice for example. And that’s ok, that’s what keeps the entertainment business growing and changing.
I think back to when I started voice over in the mid 90’s, there was no such thing as a low level tier career, I had no way of working for online P2P platforms or anyway to try and develop my professional workflow with lower paying jobs while I hustled to get an agent and work at getting my mid to high level career going. I had to go from zero to mid/high level and that wasn’t easy. In the grand scheme for those that are focused and can hustle in the low tier and continually chip away at the mid to high level tiered work, there is more than enough work for all of us. So take a step back and look at the evidence and speak to the people that you know who are in the business and seek out actual examples where artificial voices are in fact eroding our opportunities. Just because they can put Carrie Fisher in Star Wars doesn’t mean that I’m happy when her digital version comes on screen, I will accept it for the moment and suspend my disbelief, but it certainly does not serve the human connection or the magic of storytelling.
And now here’s a word from my business partner and VO superstar Noel Johansen. Keep up the hard work and I’ll see you On The Mic!
– Michael Daingerfield
In adding to the “Don’t panic” message, there is a call to arms on a regulatory scale, which I think holds equal importance: Don’t sit back and watch what AI could do, or bury your head in the sand and Ostrich your way out of this. We as artists and performers MUST act and act now to protect what we have in terms of our creations, our identity and our humanity. And the biggest and maybe the only power we have is to push for strong regulation that I see as two-fold. One is the importance of making sure AI isn’t used to stealing our voices and vocal identities as VO performers and using them “in perpetuity” and without permission and compensation. The other is limiting the use of AI in performance areas that involve the creation of voices for the use of advertising and entertainment.
As a performer, there are several ways to petition for regulation regarding voice/Identity protection and limiting the use of Ai in performance: 1) through your union, if you’re a part of it; 2) through your local and federal governments; and 3) Join any and all organizations and online petitions that want to protect vocal creativity i.e. NAVA.
We can’t just throw our hands up and hope it all works out. It involves all of us, and we have the power to shape the future.
The hopeful news around Regulation is that European legislation regarding vocal identity and ownership rights may play a huge role in how we regulate that in North America – ex. on the Privacy disclaimers on websites from European legislation in 2016 – General Data Protection Regulation (EU) ended up forcing North American Companies to follow suit. What in effect they did is force any company’s website who held a European citizen’s data in contravention of the European Regulation, i.e illegally, could be liable in European court. In other words, the European court could hold liable 3rd party countries who do not comply with European legislation concerning personal data of their citizens. So immediately every North American website adopted the strict data privacy guidelines prescribed by the European legislation and in so doing adopted the tougher more protective laws. I believe the same could happen around vocal identity and potential vocal theft in North America as in Europe, if we fight to adopt similar legislation or at the very least make companies here liable in European court to start that trend.
On a personal level and with your agents, make sure your contracts don’t give away your voice away in perpetuity. Be careful who you voice for – is it an engine that could repurpose your voice without you having any say or control? Once you do, and you make a mistake, you’re the one who ends up losing out.
In the end the future is wide open – artificial voices are a natural development in the ecosystem of the voice over business including the innovation of the IPhone’s AI ‘Siri’ voice, or the way P2P sites popped up, because that’s what a section of the buyers wanted, but again that has only added to the industry and its options. The voice over business will continue to develop and change forever – as long as you are focused on your best read in the genres that you choose to compete in – in a sustainable, informed and joyful way – you will continue to find success!
– Noel Johansen
