Are AI voice over mods legal or ethical?

Lately I have been thinking about the possibility of using ai to create mods to add voice over to games that are either not fully voiced or are only voiced in one or two languages.

These kind of mods would be extremely helpful for people with impaired vision, dislexia or non native speakers interested in acquiring a new language.

I don't think it will be high quality enough to compete with professional voice actors but it does seem like it can potentially greatly improved some users experiences.

What do you think? Do you think it would be ethical If done without charging? Have you heard of some of these mods already existing?

Yes and no. Well, not sure about the legal aspect. But ehtical? Yes and no.

In fact I'm playing a game right now that's almost entirely AI voiceovers. Spacebourne 2

It's pretty good. Very indie and a little rough since it's still early access, but given the size of the team and their budget, I don't blame them one bit for using AI voiceovers.

I don't dismiss AI out of hand entirely; it can be a valuable tool to assist many facets of life. I just don't like it when it is used to create "original" content. I think there needs to be that "x factor" of human creation initially, but after that, whatever...if you want an AI voiceover to translate your original script to a different language, go for it.

same here.

i been messing with ai art atm.

from free to use data. i gotten some wth images. in the best way possible

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout2/mods/67?tab=description

I saw this voice restoration mod for Fallout 2 (fully voiced, no AI used) back in february and it blew my mind.

Unfortunately Youtube took it down because it wasn't a video about a gorgeous woman doing geeky stuff that has millions of hits for some reason.

Seems to me this will be standard in a not too distant future. For indie studios it's really amazing. Clearly it's the differenc between having voiced characters or not. It also makes it so much easier to edit scenes, test different lines etc. Sucks for those working as voice actors, but I don't think they can stop the future for long.

Just think, soon this can be a reality.

You can try

Bard (google.com)

Ask it to write any kind of text. Then press the speaker icon at the top right of the reply. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good.

Tbh as long as an AI voice over is disclosed as that then I don't see an issue ethically, legally is another question and I'm guessing there would have to be some sort of modulation done to stop a voice being an exact copy of a likeness or something along those lines, I.E using AI to create a parody voice that uses the same tones, inflections and cadence as someone else imo would be 100% fine and legal, using AI to create a voice that was almost indistinguishable from the original far far more dicey.

Whenever there is new or emerging technology, there will be legal issues to be addressed.

@uninspiredcup: I'm just sitting here waiting for someone to put David Hayter's voice in MGS5.

and ethical.

I'm always reminded of Alfred Nobel and TNT when things like this come up.

As long as you're not using ai to copy someone's voice. Especially someone in the industry.

@faponte13: I am unsure whether using someone's voice in a parody will cause issues, except the person. I know that parodies of copyrighted works are not subjected to copyright suits.

@mrbojangles25: it's interesting to see that indie games are being made this way already. I wonder If it will end up influencing the top down crpgs and jrpgs I like so much.

@onesiphorus: its unethical. legally? It's up to the courts but if it to me it should be illegal.

@mrbojangles25: I agree with your stance saying how you can forgive smaller indie developers with tiny budgets for using AI voiceovers. But if AI voice acting goes mainstream, I can totally see large AAA mega-publishers using it it as well (despite these mega-publishers being worth billions and can easily afford professional voice acting) and defending themselves with some nonsense excuse like “we have analysed and evaluated the needs of our customers, and we have responded by implementing groundbreaking innovation to achieve our goals and visions” or some other garbage like that, lol.

@lavamelon: AAA games are very expensive nowadays. AI voice acting could help bring budgets down.

@lavamelon: maybe they can have a mixed system in which the voice actor does most of the work and is paid extra to license his voice for use in the game for the less important dialogue or the dialogue That is changed last minute.

After all, the voice actor doesn't only provides the voice. It provides the acting. I don't think ai can easily reach that level.

I think the AI chat bot implementation is more impressive. They couple that with the AI text to voice too and early examples iv seen of it in Skyrim and that open world Matrix, city, tech demo, game thing are pretty impressive. You can basically walk up to npcs and talk directly into your microphone to them, ask them questions and they will answer them like chatgpt and the likes do while staying in character and with full voice.

Example of CHATGPT implementation in Skyrim:

https://www.eurogamer.net/uk-actors-and-equity-are-battling-the-rise-of-ai-driven-deepfake-mods

There is currently an article in Eurogamer about the his topic. The main issue seems to be the illegal use of the voice of actors and actresses.

Its interesting, can a voice be copyrighted?it's hard to tell. Many voice are very similar, some of them could be the same and even a person's voice will change as they age.

Sounds funny. A Trump voice mod playing characters in video games. XD