Stephen Fry Reveals His Voice Was “Stolen” From Harry Potter Audiobooks To Create Artificial Intelligence-Generated Documentary Narration.
Veteran actor Stephen Fry was shocked to learn that his voice was “stolen” from the Harry Potter audiobooks to narrate a documentary.
Multi-award-winning and acclaimed British actor, comedian, director and writer Stephen Fry was shocked to learn that his well-known voice was plundered by artificial intelligence technology and used without his consent. Having recorded hours of material for the Harry Potter audiobook series and the entire Sherlock Holmes library, there are many easily accessible examples of Fry’s voice, and it seems that some people were quick to seize the opportunity.
In the midst of strikes in Hollywood, with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA fighting over regulations on the use of artificial intelligence in the film and television industry, Fry realized that his voice was being used to narrate a documentary he had no prior knowledge of. But it wasn’t his voice, because through the use of artificial intelligence, someone was able to replicate the actor’s tone and style based on his reading of seven Harry Potter books.
The actor, who recently attended the CogX Festival, addressed this situation and showed attendees an excerpt of the documentary in which a copy of his voice was used without his permission:
“I’m a proud member [of SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union] and as you know, we’ve been on strike for three months. And one of the most burning issues is artificial intelligence. I didn’t say a word – it was a machine. Yes, it shocked me. They used my reading of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter books and from that dataset an AI of my voice was created and they did this new voiceover.”
Fry also talked about the dangers that come with the use of these technologies, which can create all kinds of content based on anyone’s voice or image:
“What you hear is not the result of a mash-up. It comes from a flexible artificial voice where the words are modulated to fit the meaning of each sentence. Therefore, you may have had me read everything from a call to Parliament to hardcore porn without my knowledge or permission. And this, what you have just heard, was done without my knowledge. When I heard about it I sent it to my representatives on both sides of the Atlantic and they went crazy – they never thought such a thing was possible. You haven’t seen anything yet. This was an audio recording. It won’t be long before the full deepfake videos are just as convincing.”
SAG-AFTRA, the nearly 160,000-member actors’ union, went on strike last month over concerns about pay, working conditions and the use of artificial intelligence in the film industry. Joining the Writers Guild of America, which represents thousands of Hollywood writers, the union went on strike in early May in the industry’s largest work stoppage in more than six decades.
One of the key issues for the striking actors is the possibility of studios using artificial intelligence to digitally reproduce their images without fair compensation for using their likenesses.
Speaking at a press conference at the time of the strike announcement, union president Fran Drescher said that AI “poses an existential threat” to the creative industries and that actors need protection against “exploitation of their identities and talents without consent or payment.”
“Technology is not a noun, it is a verb, it is always in motion,” he said. “What we have now is not what we will have in the future. When it comes to AI models, what we have now will advance faster than any technology we have ever seen. One thing we can all agree on: it’s a very strange time to be alive.”
This is not the first act of copying
Fry is not the only celebrity actor to openly voice concerns about artificial intelligence and its place in the film industry.
At a rally in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike in the UK over the summer, Emmy-winning Succession star Brian Cox shared an anecdote about a friend in the industry who told him “in no uncertain terms” that a studio would keep his image and do whatever it wanted with it.
“That’s completely unacceptable,” Cox said. “And that’s what we have to fight against, because that’s the worst. Wages aside, but the worst thing is the idea of AI and what AI can do to us.”
Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during a panel event at this year’s Dreamforce conference that he was concerned about the rise of AI in Hollywood.
From Harry’s first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to his final battle with his archenemy Voldemort, the seven captivating novels of the Harry Potter series, read by Stephen Fry, include more than 100 CDs with a total running time of 124 hours and 56 minutes.
