Actors and performers demand UK government protection against AI voice cloning

Actors including Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville and Nicola Coughlan have written to the UK government demanding greater protection against their voices being used by AI.

The performers are asking Prime Minister Andy Burnham to introduce legislation which would give every person in the UK a legal right to own their voice.

Voice clones are created by training AI on recordings of real people. Quick versions can be made in minutes from a few seconds of audio, but high-quality copycats tend to require hours.

Audiobook narrator Alice Sockett, who co-founded the campaign, called it "an existential threat to our entire industry".

"My voice is out there in the public domain but completely unprotected," she said.

"We're seeing voice theft increase every week."

A government spokesperson told the BBC that, while "digital replicas can be a powerful tool, including for the creative industries," there was also possibility for harm.

"We value and protect human creators, and that is why we have announced we will launch a consultation on how we address these harms, while protecting legitimate innovation", the spokesperson said.

More than 80 performers have signed the letter, with Derry Girls actor Siobhán McSweeney saying she was "deeply worried" that the government was lagging behind.

"There is a way to work alongside AI and to use it as a tool that benefits us rather than rendering us obsolete," she said.

"Our audiences want that human connection. Not AI."

As well as actors, other signatories include those working in other performing industries.

That includes Scottish singer Sandi Thom, known for her 2006 hit I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair).

She said she was signing the letter because her voice was "unique to me and was handed to me at birth".

"Behind that voice is the emotion, the life, the pain, the tears and joy that I've felt along the way," she said.

"Without creativity, we are nothing."

It comes a few months after lawyers warned UK legislation has become "unfit for purpose" because of the advancements of AI tech.

"The law comes close, but it doesn't fully protect your voice, your face or your identity," Dr Mathilde Pavis said in June.

However, some people - for example those who are unable so speak properly because of illness - have welcomed technology that can replicate a person's voice.

Yvonne Johnson, who lost her voice due to motor neurone disease, told the BBC's Tech Life programme in February how having it cloned by AI had "totally blown her mind", and brought her closer to her family, who had forgotten what she sounded like.

Others have gone a step further and used AI not only to replicate a person's voice, but to create a holographic representation of them.

Pam Cronrath, from Washington state, used the tech to surprise mourners at her husband's funeral, where a digital version of her deceased partner addressed those who attended his wake.

"I was completely impressed," she told BBC News. "It stayed with me."