“Our profession could completely disappear”: the serious tone, Brigitte Lecordier, unforgettable voice of iconic characters like Noddy or San-Goku, sounds the alarm. In a video published on social networks this Tuesday, big names in French dubbing, such as the voices of Titeuf, Margot Robbie, Marge and Homer Simpson, Pumba and Morgan Freeman point out the use of artificial intelligence in their profession, perceived as a mortal danger. Massively relayed, their appeal went viral in just a few hours.
“If artificial intelligence replaces us, it will no longer be our voices, human voices, that you will hear, but the voices of robots, which will have been generated by the theft of our voices, without our consent or traceability,” worry artists. Recalling the similar difficulties encountered by musicians, writers and graphic designers, the voice actors believe that “culture is in danger” in the face of the uncontrolled rise of AI. “With great voice acting comes great responsibility,” says Spiderman voice actor Donald Reignoux, in an obvious reference to the character’s Uncle Ben’s famous maxim.
Professionals are calling on the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, so that “dubbing in France remains a cultural exception”. Gathered around the
Launched very recently by the French Union of Performers – the SFA – and the professional association LesVoix, an online petition intended for the Minister of Culture summarizes the issues presented by the actors in the video. The authors plead to preserve their profession, fearing to be “among the first to be replaced, in the very short term, by the tools of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), capable of translating, cloning, synthesizing texts, voices, interpretations and emotions with astonishing similarity. We are on the front line because the processing of voice data requires less computing power than images,” write the authors. “The government remains deaf to our requests,” regret the professionals, supported by more than 42,000 signatories at this time.
This mobilization comes even as actress Scarlett Johansson entered into conflict on Tuesday with the AI giant OpenAI, accused of having copied her voice. It also recalls recent warnings from foreign counterparts of French voices, on the same theme. In the United States, last year, voice actors sounded the alarm, fearing that their work tools would be duplicated or even stolen. The message was also relayed in France at the same time: in 2023, representatives of dubbers had already requested legal supervision of the use of voices, as well as quotas for human intervention in productions such as films or audio books.