(Scholarship #2)

I seriously doubt that Artificial Intelligence would fully replace voice acting with our current technology. A skilled voice actor has capabilities that a voice AI would not be able to replicate. Even if the voices are somewhat believable, AI programmes attempting to show emotion through 0’s and 1’s would not be possible.  Humans are far more complex and competent than technology is. When you are in a recording booth, an actor gets constant feedback from the team working with you. The director gives them directions that are immediately applied. There is a lot of physicality in voice-over work that changes how the voice is produced. Other things that AI can’t produce are things like intention, tone, and infliction. Voice actors also lend a fair bit of their influence and brand. AI would not be able to produce the level of revenue that a “following” would. People are much more likely to see a movie if they know that their favourite actor was voicing the main character than if it was a robot. A lot less convincing the public is required. For smaller roles, like those of ads on your phone or small speaking roles, I do think it’s possible for our current technology to replace those roles. According to Screen Rant “The combination of the increased difficulty of producing new, unique voices and the lack of central ownership of existing voice data means that voice actors can enjoy job security for the considerable future without concern about being replaced by AI bots” so, that would lead me to believe in a steady path for the current generation of voice actors. A good comparison of these voices are seen in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDKqCUPbmsI&ab_channel=Invalid . In the future, I do believe those scales might tip. But that technology seems to be a good 20-30 years out at least. There are project that have been developed with AI voices like Lucasfilm’s new Obi-Wan Kenobi series has their Darth Vader voice produced by Respeecher. Although, I do believe that now or in the future, human voice actors will be preferred to those of AI.