Morgan Freeman slams AI voice imitations of himself

Los Angeles [US], June 30 (ANI): Seems like veteran actor Morgan Freeman is not impressed by the increased use of AI technology lately.

Morgan Freeman recently took to social media and thanked his fans who called out unauthorized AI imitations of the actor’s recognizable voice, as per Variety.

“Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me,” the actor wrote. “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful. #AI #scam #imitation #IdentityProtection”

Morgan’s post comes at a time where AI imitations have faced scrutiny in the entertainment industry.

According to Variety, Scarlett Johansson’s legal team recently called for OpenAI to disclose how it created its AI personal voice assistant, Sky, and to pull the chatbot down for sounding extremely similar to her own voice. Johansson said she was approached by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last September with a request to use her voice for a conversational form of ChatGPT, but she declined for “personal reasons.” The actor said last month that she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that the AI company went ahead and used a voice extremely similar to hers after she refused to work with them.

Altman also allegedly contacted her agent two days before the voice assistant demo was released asking her to reconsider. The company paused the use of the voice assistant, but stated that the voice was not an imitation of Johansson.

In April, Drake also came under fire from Tupac Shakur’s estate for using an AI imitation of the West Coast rapper on his song “Taylor Made Freestyle” dissing Kendrick Lamar. Howard King, who reps Shakur’s estate, sent a cease-and-desist to Drake, stating that the song was a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time.”