According to the New York Times, two U.S.Voice Actor Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage recently claimed that AI Startups Lovo filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that they had "copied" their voices without their permission.
The incident started when the two were driving last summer and heard a podcast about the rise of AI, which talked about the threat that AI would pose to the lives of writers, actors, and other entertainment professionals.The host "interviewed" a chatbot named Poe, whose voice sounded like Paul's original voice..
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Paul said,The scene at that time was like the host was interviewing "himself", while “I” was speaking to an audience about the dangers of AI and its potential impact on the entertainment industry. “We pulled over to the side of the road and sat there in disbelief. We were trying to figure out what was going on and what we should do.”
The two claimed that Lovo, a startup in Berkeley, California, had illegally used their voices.To create technology that "competes" with their sound worksNot only Paul, Linnea also found that his voice was used to train AI.
In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Manhattan, the couple said:Anonymous Lovo employees invited them to provide some audio clips from 2019 and 2020, but did not disclose how the clips would be usedThe lawsuit cites letters showing that an anonymous person contacted Linnea and paid her $400 to record several radio scripts.and explained that the recordings would not be used for public purposes. Paul said, “We want to take back control of our voices, our identities, our professions.”
Lovo's attorney denied the claims in the lawsuit. "If the user agrees to provide Lovo with the recording, then there is no problem."