Game actor's voice simulated without consent for Witcher 3

The voice of video game actor was recreated without his permission in a mod for The Witcher 3, prompting accusations of copyright abuse and prompting concerns about the use of AI voice technologies to replace jobs.

GamesRadar+ reported that actor Doug Cockle's voice, which was used for the principal character Geralt, had been recreated in a mod (aka modification) for The Witcher 3 called A Night to Remember, thereby allowing the mod team to generate new dialogue in addition to reusing and remixing existing voice lines.  

It transpired that Cockle's voice had been recreated using Russian company Mind Simulation Lab's CyberVoice (since renamed SteosVoice) speech synthesis technology without his explicit permission, prompting accusations of copyright abuse. 

Mind Simulation Lab told Input that Cockle's parody audio would not be accessible for commercial purposes unless the actor joined the CyberVoice platform. However, the Russian company's claim was undermined by A Night to Remember modder nikich340 saying he had asked for specific voice lines from the lab, which Mind Simulation Lab had provided. 

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.gamesradar.com/witcher-3-mod-uses-ai-to-create-new-voice-lines-without-geralts-original-voice-actor/

• https://www.inputmag.com/gaming/video-game-voice-ai-human-actors-witcher-3-mod-controversy

• https://www.ibtimes.com/witcher-3-story-mod-stirs-controversy-over-ai-generated-voice-acting-3237250

• https://www.vice.com/en/article/3aq8gn/this-witcher-3-mod-got-geralt-to-read-new-lines-without-the-voice-actor

• https://gamerant.com/the-witcher-3-mod-ai-voices/

• https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/04/witcher-3-fan-builds-a-new-quest-with-perfect-geralt-voice-acting/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/o8ny5f/witcher_3_story_mod_trailer_for_a_night_to/