David Attenborough 'disturbed' with his voice being cloned using AI
File picture of Sir David Attenborough.
David Attenborough is “disturbed” with the idea of his voice and other IPs being replicated with the use of Artificial Intelligence. The legendary natural history presenter rallied against AI taking over our lives.
After he received a message from the BBC that his voice was being cloned by AI creators, David Attenborough shared that he was “profoundly disturbed”.
This is how David Attenborough got to know that his voice has been cloned by AI
It so happened that BBC News ran an item using David’s voiceover from his latest BBC series, Asia. In the clip, he says: “If you think you’ve seen the best the natural world has to offer, think again. There is nowhere else on Earth with so many untold stories. Welcome then, to Asia.”
The BBC then played the same clip and asked viewers if they could hear any differences. Both the clips were not the same even though the voice sounded identical. BBC then explained that the second one was an AI-generated capture of David’s intonation.
It’s now been found that the voice in the second clip is being used in news reports on YouTube channels such as The Intellectualist on issues such as the Ukraine-Russia war and Donald Trump.
Upset with this, David Attenborough told the BBC, “Having spent a lifetime trying to speakwhat I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find these days my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish.”
As a response to this, the person who cloned Attenborough skit said, “Let’s set the record straight. Unless Mr Attenborough has been moonlighting for us in secret, and under an assumed name with work authorization in the United States, he is not on our payroll. I am not David Attenborough. We are both male British voices for sure, but I am not David Attenborough for anyone out there who might be confused.”
