New York
“Time TV”
—
Now, Lehrman, together with fellow voice actor Linnea Sage, is suing AI agency Lovo for allegedly commissioning them for voice tasks beneath false pretenses with a view to create and promote AI-generated variations of their voices. The Berkeley, California primarily based tech firm advertises AI-generated voice know-how for use in advertising, training and product demos.
Lehrman and Sage are suing Lovo and searching for class motion standing to incorporate different individuals “whose voices and/or identities have been stolen and used,” in line with the grievance filed Thursday within the Southern District Court docket of New York. The grievance was first reported by the New York Occasions.
The voice actors’ lawsuit is simply the newest in a latest string of authorized actions introduced towards numerous tech firms by creatives, writers and artists who say their work was used with out their permission to coach AI methods that might finally compete with them. Such lawsuits have added to a rising wave of issues over how the coaching of AI fashions, which requires big swaths of information, might run afoul of copyright and mental property legal guidelines.
“Implicit in LOVO’s choices to its clients is that every voice-over actor has agreed to LOVO’s phrases and situations for patrons to have the ability to entry that actor’s voice,” the grievance states. However for Lehrman and Sage and any others “who haven’t agreed to LOVO’s phrases, the continued unauthorized use of Plaintiffs’ voices is theft of service and misappropriation.”
Lovo didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the lawsuit.
In Could 2020, Lehrman says he acquired a request for voice-over narrative companies on the gig work web site Fiverr from an account known as “User25199087.” When he requested what the voice pattern was for, he was informed it will be used “for educational analysis functions solely” and that “the scripts wouldn’t be used for the rest,” in line with the grievance. He was paid $1,200 for the job, the grievance states.
Two years later, Lehrman got here throughout a YouTube video that sounded as if it had his voice narrating it, though he’d by no means been concerned in its creation, the grievance states. Then in June 2023, Lehrman claims he heard his voice getting used on a podcast concerning the risks of AI applied sciences.
Equally, Sage was supplied a job on Fiverr in 2019 producing “take a look at scripts for radio advertisements” that she was informed would “not be disclosed externally,” in line with the grievance. She was paid $400.
Sage says she later additionally found her voice in a YouTube video: a recording of a Lovo investor presentation demonstrating its know-how.
Lehrman and Sage allege that the individuals who contacted them on Fiverr have been Lovo workers who misrepresented what their voice samples could be used for and later offered or raised cash on the again of the AI-version of their voices.
“To be clear, the product that clients buy from LOVO is stolen property. They’re voices stolen by LOVO and marketed by LOVO beneath false pretenses,” the grievance states.
The actors are searching for greater than $5 million in damages, in addition to a court docket order blocking Lovo from persevering with the alleged use of their voices.
