ElevenLabs accused of recreating French dubbing artist's voice without permission
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Occurred: January 2025
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AI company ElevenLabs faced a backlash for recreating the voice of deceased French dubbing artist Alain Dorval without the consent of his family.
What happened
What happened
ElevenLabs' announcement that it had successfully cloned Alain Dorval's voice for an upcoming film, "Armor," met with outrage from Dorval's daughter, Aurora Bergé, who claimed that she had only consented to a trial and that the company did not have permission to use or publish her father's voice in this manner, and that her father would not have endorsed such an action.
Dorval is best known for having dubbed Sylvester Stallone's voice for French language audiences.
Why it happened
Why it happened
ElevenLabs says it aimed to "honor Dorval's legacy" by recreating his iconic voice for Stallone’s new action thriller, Armored, which is set to premiere on Amazon France in March 2025.
ElevenLabs also said that the idea had been raised by Lumiere Ventures, which had acquired the French rights to the film, and that it had worked with Dorval's family to preserve his voice.
What it means
What it means
ElevenLabs' apparent decision to proceed without the explicit authorisation of Dorval's family raises serious questions about the company's integrity and ethics.
The fracas also highlights broader concerns about the implications of AI-powered voice replication, especially when not authorised.
Operator:
Developer: ElevenLabs
Country: France
Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts
Purpose: Recreate voice
Technology: Voice cloning; Machine learning
Issue: Impersonation
Page info
Type: Incident
Published: January 2025
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