LogIn"Don't waste your time on this garbage."
Image Credit: Rockstar, GTA V
In the wake of the recent news about SAG-AFTRA's controversial agreement with AI Voice Plugin's developer Replica Studios, which many Voice Actors found outrageous, to say the least, a new AI vs. VA battle took place over on Twitter, this time involving none other than Ned Luke, the voice of Michael De Santa in Grand Theft Auto V.
Last weekend, Luke lambasted an AI company, WAME, which introduced an AI chatbot of Michael featuring Luke's voice in a now-deleted tweet. "Any GTA fans around here? Now take your gaming experience to another level. Try having a realistic voice conversation with Michael De Santa, the protagonist of GTA 5, right now!" read the tweet in question.
The unauthorized use of his voice left the actor infuriated, prompting him to call out the creators of the chatbot and, in the most polite way possible, explain why it is not nice to take one's voice and feed it to artificial intelligence algorithms. "This is f**king bullsh*t @wamexyz," Luke wrote, "absolutely nothing cool about ripping people off with some lame computer estimation of my voice. Don't waste your time on this garbage. Grand Theft Vocal."
Following the outburst, WAME promptly reacted, deleting the original tweet and making the chatbot inaccessible. Moreover, the company shared an apology in reply to Luke's tweet, saying that the intention was to "implement interactions with GTA game characters using AI, without any commercial motives". Said apology, however, seems to have only made things worse, with many users finding it unconvincing, insincere, and just another case of "we're sorry we got caught".
Luke further added that his primary source of motivation doesn't come from the fear of being replaced by AI, as some may have assumed, but rather originates from a straightforward disdain toward "these f**kers" and a sense of disappointment in the union's decisions, which does little to combat the core issue.
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