Is AI the new voice of voice acting? This London company is capitalizing on the technology

People working for one of the world's largest voice acting companies, based in London, Ont., are experimenting with using artificial intelligence (AI) to clone their voices for hire.

Voices.com, a voiceover marketplace that connects voice actors with clients, launched an AI service last year where clients can buy and use real actor's voices to create text-to-speech projects. 

"I get a little notification that says, 'Hey, you've been paid for a job,' and it's like, 'I didn't do a job,'" said Jesse Adam, a voice actor in Moose Jaw, Sask. who has his voice available on Voices.com's AI service.

He said it took him a week of work to record and edit his voice for cloning, but has been paid for between 50 and 100 projects since he first put his voice online last spring. 

"I was a little apprehensive at first just because as voice talent, we're seeing a lot of the smaller jobs taken away by AI," Adam said. "But for me ... I know that AI is the way the world is, so we've got to adapt."

Voice acting work includes projects for film and television, commercials, audiobook narration, toy manufacturing, corporate presentations and e-learning modules. 

As more AI text-to-speech services become available, some voice actors say they have mixed feelings about what it means for the future of their industry.

"I think the word 'scary' comes to mind for a lot of people when they think about AI because it's not as known," said Dale Elliott, a voice actor from London, Ont. "I feel it can be detrimental to the voiceover world and to those making a living doing that."

How it works

Voices.com started offering its text-to-speech services after noticing ongoing advancements in AI, said Dheeraj Jalali, the company's chief technology officer.

"We could've seen it as a disruption, but it's also an opportunity," Jalali said. 

Interested voice actors sign a form giving consent for their voices to be used for text-to-speech purposes, said Jalali. They record a series of sentences that the tech team can use to clone their voice, which is then listed as an option for clients to buy on the Voices.com website. 

Voice actors can choose the price they charge per word and the company takes a cut. Actors can restrict specific words or phrases that they do not want their AI voice to say, said Jalali. 

"It just enables the speed and time to market that wasn't possible before," he said.

Of Voices.com's more than 4 million voiceover artists worldwide, there are close to 30 voiceover artists on its text-to-speech roster. Jalali said there is a trend of "low-end" work, like short videos or personal work presentations, going to AI voices. More creative "high-end" work is still going to voice actors in the traditional way.

"I think if the project requires some sort of humanity, then the AI voice probably isn't going to scratch the itch that the client or brand needs," said Guelph, Ont.-based voice actor Justin Bott, who said he did more than 80 traditional voiceover projects last year, but only a handful of AI ones through Voices.com. 

Other voice actors said while they understand the interest in AI, they don't think their work can be replicated by technology. 

"The whole thing about commercials and audiobooks is that you're telling a story and you're trying to evoke emotion from the people that are listening to it, and machines just cannot do it as well as humans at this point," said Derek Botten, a voice actor from Port Stanley, Ont.

Considering AI ethics

Jalali said Voices.com has received positive feedback about its text-to-speech services, mostly related to the real voice actors behind its AI. 

Some clients have also reached out to the actors behind the text-to-speech voices to hire them for more elaborate voice work projects, he said. 

"With most of the players out there, you can't really go back to say whose voice you're using," Jalali said.

"We are very different in that approach because we have a premium voice actor, this is their voice, it's licensed and they have given their consent," he said. "Everything is done as far as the ethical guidelines that we have put in place."

Adam and Bott both said they realize there are risks to having their voice at someone else's fingertips, but they said that comes with the technology.

"Data, your voice and audio can get warped and used however people want to use it now," said Bott, referring to other AI tools that exist online. "There's definitely risk involved, I just don't know that what I'm doing is that much more of a risk than an everyday phone call with a scammer."

Elliott said he is open to experimenting with AI in the voiceover industry. He has helped train voice AI to make it sound more natural and has worked at a company which asked him to record a few lines of speech to use for text-to-speech in the future.

Meanwhile, Botten said he will never record his voice for text-to-speech projects.

"I'm not interested in participating to the point where I'm helping to improve AI," said Botten. "I'm a voice actor, not an AI actor."