Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine license likenesses as generative AI debate deepens | CBC Accessibility

Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have signed a deal with AI company ElevenLabs, becoming the latest stars to license their voices for digital recreation.

Founded in 2022, the AI audio startup allows brands to license the voices of celebrities and historical figures for use in content and advertisements. McConaughey, who has been an investor since 2022, shared in a statement he’ll allow the company to translate his newsletter, Lyrics of Livin’, into Spanish using his voice.

Caine, meanwhile, has licensed his voice via the company’s Iconic Marketplace and for use on its text-to-audio app ElevenReader.

“It’s not about replacing voices; it’s about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere,” Caine was quoted as saying in a statement. “I’ve spent a lifetime telling stories. ElevenLabs will help the next generation tell theirs.”

The company already has a series of other synthetic performers on offer, either through collaborating with living actors or replicating their voices through historical and archival audio. Some of those voices include Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison and J. Robert Oppenheimer. 

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The platform markets itself as a “performer-first approach the entertainment industry has been calling for,” with a focus on “respect, consent and creative authenticity.” That is alongside a schism in the entertainment industry between individuals decrying the incursion of generative AI tools and the studios and companies embracing them.

More and more, big names have been capitulating to the technology characterized as an inevitable force of change. After OpenAI released its text-to-video AI model Sora 2 in October — alongside its AI video Sora app — a slew of complaints around misinformation and privacy concerns piled on over everything from celebrity deepfakes to induced “AI psychosis.”

While consumer advocacy group Public Citizen sent an open letter to OpenAI complaining about privacy violations and the undermining of public trust in online content, the company has largely responded to concerns from celebrities and Hollywood.

Unions and studios

The acting union has previously expressed wariness around the possibility of generative AI undermining performers’ ability to find work in the industry.

After signing a contract acknowledging “the importance of human performance in motion pictures” that asked studios and the union to act in “good faith” toward one another in bargaining, they were joined by other acting unions around the world in protesting the creation of “synthetic performer” Tilly Norwood. 

“SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered,” they said in a statement. “The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.”

But that has not stopped entertainment juggernauts from moving forward with AI investments. Netflix has said it is “all in” on leveraging generative AI tools in improving recommendations, business ads and in movies and TV programs.

And Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl recently told analysts that AI should be harnessed as a powerful and beneficial tool for the music industry, despite AI-generated music and musicians undercutting their current sales.

This is even as performers who have agreed to work with AI companies have expressed reservations about the results. Speaking to the New York Times, actor Scott Jacqmein said after selling his likeness to TikTok, he’s encountered himself selling everything from insurance quotes to a brain teaser app — none of which he’d since been compensated for.

While it was all within the terms of the agreement he signed, he echoed regret and concerns previously expressed by numerous “horrified” actors who made similar deals.

While those actors were often paid relatively small paycheques, they could find themselves stuck in irrevocable, indefinite deals that see their likenesses part of multimillion-dollar ad campaigns — promoting everything from distasteful products to endorsing propaganda and military coups.

‘AI is here to stay’

Often the argument for using generative AI in entertainment industries is the same: Its benefits are too great, and it isn’t going anywhere. Last month, Mad Max director George Miller defended his decision to take part in an AI film festival, saying “AI is arguably the most dynamically evolving tool in making moving image…. AI is here to stay and change things.”

And after freelance game reviewer Rick Lane criticized video game Arc Raider, characterizing its AI-generated dialogue as “a black mark against its reputation,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shot back. In a series of posts on X, he argued that tech innovations lead to better games, which lead to more employment opportunities. 

At the same time, there are still skeptics and holdouts. According to Wired, Forbes, The Guardian and more, early warning signs have begun to be raised about an investment bubble when it comes to AI — a bubble that could burst, wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.

And other prominent artists have spoken of their outright hatred of generative AI content. Studio Ghibli head Hayao Miyazaki once called a generative AI project an “insult to life itself,” while famed filmmaker Werner Herzog labelled AI a “nemesis” to humanity.

And speaking to NPR, Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro said he was decidedly uninterested in ever experimenting with generative AI in his films. “I’d rather die,” he said.