How AI is using famous voices and why it matters

Wall Street Journal quotes Siwei Lyu in a report that new chatbots are mimicking famous celebrity and politician voices, which may violate publicity rights and pose a risk of defamation. In recent months, synthetic audio, or speech that is computer-generated, has reached new levels of sophistication. Lyu said, “the quality just improved significantly, especially for people who have plenty of [audio] samples online.” Lyu also emphasizes this is not just a celebrity problem. “Our digital presence, our images, voices, videos of ourselves—everyone is becoming an asset we share with commercial companies and they’re making a profit.”