Paul Eiding, the voice actor behind Colonel Campbell in the Metal Gear Solid series, has spoken out about the use of his voice for AI projects without his permission.
Eiding tweeted yesterday urging content creators not to use his voice of Colonel Campbell and other characters from Transformers, Fallout, and other work involving him in an illegal manner.
“If you do not have written permission to use my voice, you DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION to use my voice,
including AI use,” he wrote. “Doing so is a violation of my legal rights and a real slap in the face.”
Please read.
If you do not have written permission to use my voice,
you DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION to use my voice,
including AI use. Doing so is a violation of my legal rights
and a real slap in the face.Thanks in advance, for not doing this. #MGS #Transformers #Ben10 #Fallout
— Paul Eiding (@4pauleiding) July 9, 2023
Eiding’s anger over the AI use of his voice comes on the heels of Erica Lindbeck, who voices Futaba Sakura in Persona 5, Hrist in God of War Ragnarok, and Blaze the Cat in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, speaking out on the same issue. According to TheGamer, Lindbeck asked fans on Twitter to report AI videos that use her voiceover work without her permission, including an AI-generated cover of “Welcome to the Internet” by Bo Burnham, which was sung by Futaba.
The AI creator then accused Lindbeck of inciting a harassment campaign against them over the video, which they deemed a “dumb but harmless Futaba AI cover”. The dispute forced the voice actress to delete her Twitter account without a word on if or when she’ll be back on the platform. Twitter has since suspended the AI creator from the platform for violating its media policy.
The impact of AI is an increasingly hot topic within the industry. In May, EA boss Andrew Wilson said the games industry would probably be “one of the greatest beneficiaries of AI”. He described AI as an “augment” to EA’s teams, as well as a way to allow players to create content within EA’s worlds. For more on the subject of AI, IGN recently held an AI Week of articles and video content all about the nascent technology.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.