That's an interesting example because Star Wars has already done that for some of their actors, including Peter Cushing, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamil (not deceased, but he was replaced by AI to age him down 30 years). So obviously I would not at all be surprised if they did the same to Harrison Ford. But also Han Solo is one of the only cast members that has been recast (along with Obi Wan). So I think it could also make sense to just use Alden Ehrenreich.
I feel like this should only be possible for a year or two after the passing of an actor, to extend, or even complete, their work in a piece they already participated in while alive.
After that, even if the same role is brought back in a new story, it should go to a living actor.
Not something I would have ever thought of, but this is actually a pretty solid idea.
Especially un a time where AI is a pretty big issue for the entertainment industry.
Like, a lot of my favorite actors are old as shit. To finish unfinished work and put a close to a character would be an excellent use of the technology. End of life purposes with respectful boundaries
I hate it. They did it almost as ethically as possible (receiving the actual actor's permission would be better), but still, it opens the door. Can we just let the dead rest, and hire the living?
Mixed thoughts here. I guess I’d also hate if they would have changed the French voice actor for Viktor (Lionel Tua) in the main release afterwards to match with the new voice added later, since, for me (and I guess for a bunch of other people since the actor is quite known for his voice acting), his voice has really something special, such as the French V female voice for instance.
For sure tho, if they wouldn’t have the authorization from the family, I’d be completely against this. And I guess they couldn’t have the actor authorization anyhow (like, hey bud’, just in case you die in the next months, could we redo your voice with AI?)
Agreed. I think rerecording all his lines and replacing them somehow feels more disrespecful than asking his families permission and using AI to reproduce his voice. I wouldnt want my work just deleted and started fresh under the same circumstances.
Would you prefer they recast and re-record over his voice so the family didn’t get any royalties and his name is less well-known? It’s not hard to make regulations that you need consent from next of kin and have to pay to use the “likeness” of their voice like you do with appearance. Refusing to use new technology because someone might misuse it before regulations are in place are what luddites do
I'd prefer they simply cast someone else who can do the character's voice, without redubbing the original game. It won't sound as good, but it's better than legitimizing this practice. Soon enough voice actors will barely exist because some set of actors will have licensed their voice for use in this technology. Who would pay full price for a real actor when they can pay a fraction of the price for a company to generate the audio for them? AI models are already close to passing the audio equivalent of the Turing test. It's hard to tell that the voice narrating a tiktok video is AI unless you've heard the same voice elsewhere or the uploader made a typo.
And yeah, I am a Luddite. Idunno if you know what they were actually about, but I'm not ashamed to call myself one.