Two voice actors in the United States sued the Artificial Intelligence company Lovo in federal court in Manhattan, accusing it of illegally copying their voices to train, without their permission, its voice-over technology with artificial intelligence.
In the class action lawsuit, Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage claimed that the San Francisco-based company is selling AI versions of their voices without permission after tricking them into providing samples of their voices to the company.
The actors, who are seeking at least $5 million in compensation for the group, accuse Lovo of fraud, false advertising and violating their publicity rights.
The case is the latest in a growing wave of high-stakes lawsuits accusing tech companies of misusing content such as books, news articles and song lyrics to power generative artificial intelligence systems.
“We want to make sure this doesn’t happen to other people,” lawyer Steve Cohen of the law firm Pollock Cohen, who represents the plaintiffs, told Reuters. Representatives for Lovo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Lehrman and Sage were contacted on the freelancing marketplace Fiverr to do voice-over work for anonymous clients.
Lehrman was told his voice would only be used for a “research project,” while Sage was told his voice would only be used with “test scripts for radio advertisements,” according to the lawsuit.
Instead, Lehrman later heard AI-played versions of his voice in YouTube videos about Russian military hardware and in a podcast episode about “the dangers of AI technologies,” according to the lawsuit.
Sage’s voice was used to voice promotional material for Lovo.
Lehrman later learned that his Fiverr client was an employee of Lovo, according to the lawsuit.
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The actors filed the lawsuit on behalf of a proposed group of people whose voices Lovo is also accused of misusing.
According to the lawsuit, Lovo’s website also offers voices from celebrity impersonators with names such as “Barack Yo Mama,” “Mark Zuckerpunch” and “Cocoon O’Brien.”
2024-05-18 09:00:00
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