[iris2004]

It's a neat demo. I don't know how I feed about cloning the voice of a living person, even a 'public' figure like a presenter. I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually becomes illegal, although it'll likely be as difficult to enforce as normal casual copyright infringement.

[woleium]

I expect the existing laws will be extended. I had a colleague tell me about looking into how much Morgan freeman wanted for a 15s commercial ($$$$$$). The alternative he used was a “sound alike” voice actor, for which Morgan Freeman received royalties to the tune of $$$$$.

[pcthrowaway]

Why would Morgan Freeman be entitled to royalties for a commercial where the voice over sounded similar to his voice... unless he actually sold the rights to represent him with a vocal likeness in the commercial (AKA he didn't do the voice over, but the commercial was able to claim the voice over was by Morgan Freemen, or that it represented Morgan Freeman's opinions... like when a book by a celebrity is actually written by someone else)

[antod]

My father had a friend who was a well recognised commercial voice over artist , and told me about his fees. There was a fee for doing the actual work, but a much bigger exclusivity/exposure fee designed to prevent his voice getting over used to the point where future work dried up.

[ciabattabread]

> The alternative he used was a “sound alike” voice actor, for which Morgan Freeman received royalties to the tune of $$$$$.

Was it Josh Robert Thompson, who is officially authorized? [1]

[1] https://filmschoolrejects.com/morgan-freeman-crab-in-barb-an...

[WalterBright]

I'd pay to stop hearing Morgan Freeman's voiceovers everywhere. It's way overplayed.

At least do some James Earl Jones!

[anon_cow1111]

The extremely obvious legal problem is, ALL simulated voices sound like some real person somewhere, it's just a matter of finding that person.

I don't see a solution to this, so I'll tend to believe the cynic's viewpoint that the final written law will be in favor of whoever has the most lawyers.

[jstarfish]

> I don't see a solution to this

It's actually simple. Take David Attenborough's name out of the picture.

"A generic British guy is now narrating my life" isn't as funny as implicating a known celebrity, which is where the legal issues would arise. A generic British guy isn't going to sue you.

Hell, you might even be able to get away with "A generic British guy who sounds like David Attenborough is now narrating my life."

[fragmede]

Sure. The difference is some voices, like David Attenborough or Samuel Jackson are instantly recognizable to a large audience while someone who isn't famous' voice is not.

Where to put the bar is a specific issue, but the exemplars in their category stand out as recognizable.

[thrwy_918]

>ALL simulated voices sound like some real person somewhere

By the same logic, all simulated faces look like some real person somewhere, but I wouldn't expect to simulate a face that looks like Brad Pitt and then use it in a TV commercial

[MrDresden]

While I agree, I also did thoroughly enjoy a recent Youtube channel that did Warhammer 40K lore in Attenborough's voice. It recently got taken down for obvious reasons.

Makes you wonder if in a few years there will be licenses available for using someone's voice for such endeavours.

[kkzz99]

I have been creating audiobooks from ebooks for a while now. I just grab an .epub and turn it into a pretty good audiobook in minutes for completely free using local models.

[olalonde]

Personally, I don't really see a problem with it as long as it's not used deceptively. In this case, it's pretty clear that it's not really David Attenborough speaking.

Outside of that, I am not sure I'm seeing a moral or economic argument for making voice copyrightable. The usual argument about incentivizing creation doesn't apply here.

[tantalor]

> pretty clear that it's not really David Attenborough speaking

Not sure how you came to that conclusion. The bot mimics his speaking style very precisely.

[thefourthchime]

I've also cloned his voice, it's trivial.

That said, it'll be interesting how the legal side of this shakes out. Does one own their likeness and voice? Who decides what that is? There are plenty of voice actors that can do a great Morgan Freedman or trump. How is that different?

[samplatt]

Cloning the voice of a dead person, to me, feels even icky-er. Indigenous Australians would probably feel the same, too, considering they avoid contact with pictures or recordings of deceased people.

[RunSet]

> I don't know how I feed about cloning the voice of a living person,

I would like to hear it generate Kevin Conroy (R.I.P.) vocals for Christopher Nolan's Batman movies.

[jojobas]

If human vocal impersonation is legal (and they are damn convincing at times) so should be machine.

[CamperBob2]

Shouldn't be illegal, but I could understand it if we see laws that require explicit disclosure when voices of living people are simulated. At first glance that seems like the right compromise.