Sir David Attenborough has made it clear he’s not here for AI replicas of his voice being circulated online.
The veteran broadcaster and all-round national treasure was the subject of a BBC News report on Sunday, following the discovery of a tool that digitally recreates Sir David’s voice using artificial intelligence.
During the news segment, clips of the real and digitally-generated versions of the 98-year-old’s distinct voice were both played, with the corporation saying several other generators also exist online.
Sir David has also issued a statement on the matter, suggesting the AI creation went against his beliefs and ethos.
“Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find that these days, my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish,” he said.
Watch the BBC News report below:
Sir David is far from the only high-profile figure to voice concerns about AI-generated content.
Singers like Beyoncé, Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran have all spoken out against the technology which has seen fans using digital recreations of their singing voices to create AI “covers” of other people’s music.
“Just recently, I heard an AI song that sounded so much like me it scared me,” Beyoncé told GQ back in September, admitting she was worried that it’s becoming “impossible to truly know what’s real and what’s not”.
Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson – who voiced an operating system in the dystopian drama Her – also spoke out back in May, when the AI service ChatGPT launched a voice system that she felt was “so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference”.
