#TouchePasMaVF: voice actors give voice to the dangers linked to AI

The employment risks associated with AI, particularly in the arts, are certainly not a new thing. It is enough to remember the actors’ strike in Hollywood, or to note the existence of almost daily ethical problems and questions surrounding the automated creation of images, sounds and videos using artificial intelligence. Today, it is a French collective of actors and dubbing actresses who are sounding the alarm for their profession, but not only.

A petition to make the government react

Many “voices” who have rocked or still rock the ears of millions of French people through films, series, cartoons and even video games have therefore launched a petition called For dubbing created by humans for humans #TouchePasMaVF. We find there in particular the names of Brigitte Lecordier (Dragon Ball), Donald Reignoux (Spiderman), Dorothée Pousseo (voice of Margot Robbie), Adeline Chetail (The Last of Us), Benoît Allemane (voice of Morgan Freeman) and many others.

The purpose of this petition is first and foremost to warn the general public: “We risk being among the first to be replaced, in the very short term, by generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools, capable of translating, cloning, synthesizing texts, voices, interpretations and emotions with astonishing similarity“, we can read there.

Beyond the risk to their jobs, they denounce other problems if AI is used to replace their work: “The emotion, the complexity, the beauty of the human experience conveyed by voice and language cannot be generated by artificial intelligence models. However powerful and refined they may be, algorithms can only create simulacra and can, if we are not careful, reinforce discriminatory biases present in the content they feed on. We protest against this frantic race for profit.“The risk of”inbreeding” of AI which feeds on other AIs to create its content is also underlined.

The other central objective of the approach is to call on the government to put in place measures to protect their profession: “The government remains deaf to our requests, pretexting the urgency of developing French and European tools, in the face of the American and Chinese giants. But these same countries, surprisingly, seem more ready to regulate than ours!“The collective is asking in particular for transparency for the public around the use of AI and protection for creators, who must be able to accept or not that the fruit of their work ends up in an AI.

A fight for creation beyond dubbing

But actors do not stop at the risk incurred by their profession alone. They specify that it is the entire creative process that is threatened if creation by AI is not regulated: “Characters made by computers are more flexible, more manageable and, ultimately, much cheaper! In all areas, many professions are threatened with disappearance. Some studies show, in the medium term, the risk of tens of millions of jobs disappearing around the world!“

Via this petition, they also ask that public aid in the cultural field be conditional on compliance with certain constraints as well as “employment of human workers and artists“They also think it necessary to”impose quotas on works and content created by human artistic intelligence on broadcasters (radios, televisions, platforms and websites) operating on French territory.“