A voice actor's job is to provide narration, voiceovers, or other voice performances for commercials, entertainment or other applications. But, what happens when a voice actor's previous work is fed into an artificial intelligence platform, which then outputs new words, said by the same voice actor? This is a voice clone and it's rocking the voice performance industry.

A voice actor discovered an AI voiceover generator model created by Lovo Inc. was used to clone his voice, and his cloned voice was used in a video talking about military equipment in the Russia-Ukraine war. The voice actor filed suit in New York against the technology company, but Lovo is pushing back, arguing that the clone is not protectable, only actual voices are.  This is because they claim the digital replica protections in the NY state law only apply to deceased individuals, not living individuals. The case is still pending. 

The cloning of voices has been seen in numerous contexts, most notably of Joe Biden in voter suppression robocalls.  This case keenly highlights the patchwork of laws of rights of publicity across the U.S. and how they lag behind the technology in the context of artificial intelligence.