Nicola Coughlan said she was “terrified” when she came across an AI voice that resembled her own on TikTok. AI-generated voices featuring voices similar to those of public figures are common on social media. As AI companies are striving to do, moving into an industry where AI has become a major labor issue in Hollywood.
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At the height of the Bridgerton Season 3 press cycle, it was almost impossible not to come across a clip of Nicola Coughlan on TikTok. But Coughlan herself experienced a new fear: encountering an AI-generated vocal caricature of herself.
The actor, who was named one of Time Magazine’s 2024 Next Generation Leaders, told the magazine that he discovered a TikTok video featuring lines read aloud from the novel Bridgerton. Ms. Coughlan did not recognize the conversation and eventually realized she had never recorded it.
“It was just an AI version of my voice, and it really scared me,” Coughlan told Time magazine. “I was like, ‘I don’t like this.'”
Coughlan is very online-conscious in her own profession. But she’s not the only actor to speak out about having her likeness used in unauthorized AI-generated content on social media.
Fake cover tracks featuring famous artists go viral on a regular basis, and in April 2023, Drake spoke out about an AI-generated cover of Ice Spice’s “Munch” that resembled his vocals rapping. This year, K-pop group Seventeen parodied their AI-generated cover of fellow K-pop group Illit’s single “Magnetic.”
Celebrity voice likenesses can be used to make money on social media. There’s an entire subgenre of content featuring the voices of U.S. presidents (primarily Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama) chatting with each other while playing online video games or Dungeons & Dragons. These videos have racked up millions of views on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, largely because public figures like Biden say, “Donald is always angry; It’s about making unpresidential jokes like, “It’s Grump.”
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When it comes to actual corporate use, some stakeholders take a hard line. Scarlett Johansson said in a statement in May that OpenAI’s new ChatGPT voice “Sky” sounded “eerily similar” to her own, after turning down an offer to voice the technology several months ago. OpenAI said in a statement that Sky was not intended to resemble Johansson and had suspended its use “out of respect” to the actor. These days, as top talent leaves AI companies like OpenAI and Stable Diffusion, they’re starting their own startups and attracting significant investment from VCs.
AI has become a major issue for Hollywood unions, including the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA dual strikes and the ongoing video game performers’ strike. For performers, these negotiations are about how the studio can use the performer’s likeness and, by extension, how the studio must compensate the performer.
Fan-generated content is harder to regulate. Voice actor Conor Fogarty told Business Insider in September that he came across an AI-generated video featuring his voice on social media, but it was removed at the request of fans.
“I understand that people may be attracted to fictional characters, but I find it strange to see my character and my ‘voice’ flirting with TikTokers I don’t know. ” he told BI.
