Good question! And it doesn’t sound somehow. That’s been the question on most voice actors’ minds globally.
I think AI will affect the major voiceover industries globally to some degree.
What are the negative impacts?
1. Fewer jobs in some Voiceover genres
2. Unprofessional talents will struggle to get jobs.
3. Price crash.
1. Fewer jobs in some voiceover genres: Some genres of VO will be affected to some extent because not all clients want that AI voice response, e.g., video gaming, IVR. However, some low-budget clients will use such services, and there is nothing we can do about it.
2. Unprofessional talents will struggle to get jobs: It’s also going to affect talents who haven’t gotten a grasp of the craft. No matter how good AI becomes, some voice talents will still be preferred because they’ve proven their worth and are very good at their craft. They will be mildly affected compared to the many talents who still haven’t gotten a grip on their sound or even audio quality.
3. Price crash: AI disruption in any industry affects the price of the products and services in that industry, and ours won’t be an exception. Most voice actors will be forced to beat down their prices as they have to compete with AI voices, which are a cheaper alternative for clients.
What does this mean for Africa?
To be fair, Africa hasn’t been on the radar of the global spectrum for voiceovers; hence, not much has been done in terms of AI interference and learning our languages, which are many. So it’s safe to say that it will take them some time to catch up here.
We have the opportunity now to double up, improve our voiceover game, and make ourselves irresistible for clients.
Will AI negatively affect the African market?
With time, I believe it will. It’s not a question of whether it will affect our market; it’s a question of what we can do.
Some people will cash out from this because they will submit their voiceovers for AI use, and that can become a cash cow depending on the licensing agreement. But only a limited number of talented people will enjoy that privilege.
Are there benefits of AI to voice actors?
Yes. According to Rolf Veldman, CEO of Voice123, his platform is developing an audition preview system where clients can prelisten to what you would sound like on their script, which informs them if you are the type of voice they want for the script. This is debatable since it doesn’t do justice to the acting skill of the actor, but it simply allows the client to hear what you would sound like at the most basic level with his script.
He further predicted that in the next 2-3 years, voice actors will have AI versions of themselves on their websites for clients to preview what they sound like in their scripts.
Also, talents who can submit their voices to AI companies for AI learning will benefit financially as well.
Unfortunately, on a large scale, these advantages are nothing compared to the many disadvantages of AI in our industry from a broader perspective.
Why do I think AI has the potential to compete with voice actors?
The truth is that it is already in competition. As much as we like to be optimistic and believe that AI will never match the emotional range of the human voice, I do not underestimate technology’s capabilities. AI is ever-evolving and improving, and I dare say it’s just a matter of time before it develops to a point where you can nearly tell the difference between an AI voice and a human voice, even with emotional reads. How long will this take? I don’t know. Probably a decade or so.
For now, I know that:
- Microsoft researchers announced on Thursday, January 5, a new text-to-speech AI model called VALL-E that can closely simulate a person’s voice when given a three-second audio sample. Once it learns a specific voice, VALL-E can synthesize audio of that person saying anything—and do it in a way that attempts to preserve the speaker’s emotional tone.
- Open AI, the company that created Chap GPT, is working on Whisper, a voice AI technology that collects large amounts of supervised multilingual data from the web to produce robust AI accents.
- Dell and Intel have teamed up to develop a technology that helps people living with motor neuron disease keep their voices, so that after they lose their voices due to the ailment, they can still communicate with others using AI that sounds exactly like them.
AI isn’t there yet, but it’s on its way, and it’s closer than we think.
My submission!
I’ll urge all voice actors, especially my African colleagues, to keep improving themselves.
The better you become, the fewer chances there are that you will be affected by the coming AI disruption. We have the advantage of the multiplicity of accents and languages; however, the major African accents and languages will be the first targets, so if you are in that sector, you should buckle up.
The future is here; the future is now!
By Tolulope Kolade.
Voice actor, voiceover coach, and podcaster.
