How would you feel about AI being used for deceased voice actors?

[Sensiblesaiyans]

AI technology is improving every year at an impressive rate. For example, now you can use it to make your favorite music artist sing any song you want them to sing. With that said, with how many Dragon Ball voice actors have died over the past 5 years, I was wondering how many people would be ok with using AI in order to keep their voice alive for future projects like games, tv shows, movies etc.

I know a lot of people are very sensitive to the thought of machines replacing human effort/ability but that is where we are heading towards in the next 50 years.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Unless it's a case like James Earl Jones with Darth Vader where the actor has explicitly given their blessing for the voice to be recreated with AI its not ethical to do so, and any company should respect the deceased actor and their loved ones if they never made such an agreement.

[JulieYBM]

AI should never be used to anything ever, most especially the creation of art and the recreation of human beings. The investments that corporations are making in AI are purely because they want to make soulless entertainment cheap and quickly so as to not have to pay creative people for their labor and to render the creation of art something that cannot be done without the approval of the corporations and weatlhy. It's fascism and we should be refusing to legitimize it.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

AI should never be used to anything ever, most especially the creation of art and the recreation of human beings. It's fascism and we should be refusing to legitimize it.

Perfectly said. AI is proving to be the absolute worst thing that could've happened to the human race, as it's on track to pretty much wipe out all jobs and creativity from the world. The worst part is, there are so many ignorant people around the world who believe it'll make their lives easier, not realizing that all it will do is take their livelihood away from them and their families. If that's not bad enough, the fascists elected into power in the US last year just passed a bill that makes it ILLEGAL for states to put any regulations on it. So much for "giving power back to the states".

With that said, with how many Dragon Ball voice actors have died over the past 5 years, I was wondering how many people would be ok with using AI in order to keep their voice alive for future projects like games, tv shows, movies etc.

All this will do is take away jobs from people who would've otherwise replaced them and other deceased actors.

[TechExpert2021]

AI should never be used to anything ever, most especially the creation of art and the recreation of human beings. The investments that corporations are making in AI are purely because they want to make soulless entertainment cheap and quickly so as to not have to pay creative people for their labor and to render the creation of art something that cannot be done without the approval of the corporations and weatlhy. It's fascism and we should be refusing to legitimize it.

AI is proving to be the absolute worst thing that could've happened to the human race, as it's on track to pretty much wipe out all jobs and creativity from the world. The worst part is, there are so many ignorant people around the world who believe it'll make their lives easier, not realizing that all it will do is take their livelihood away from them and their families. If that's not bad enough, the fascists elected into power in the US last year just passed a bill that makes it ILLEGAL for states to put any regulations on it. So much for "giving power back to the states".

I'm in the same boat as well. I'm heavily against generative AI being used in everything.

Slightly unrelated, but Crunchyroll is using AI to do the closed captioning (CC) of the English dubs of the anime they license.

[Tian]

I know a lot of people are very sensitive to the thought of machines replacing human effort/ability but that is where we are heading towards in the next 50 years.

Actually, it's more than that. Using AI to replicate a late voice talent's voice will make people more resistant to voice changes.

While I understand that James Earl Jones gave his consent to replicate his Vader's voice, I think it was kinda selfish to do so, because you CAN'T associate a character with a particular voice forever.

It's like you're telling your audience they can't accept any other voice for the character than that one.

[JulieYBM]

I know a lot of people are very sensitive to the thought of machines replacing human effort/ability but that is where we are heading towards in the next 50 years.

Actually, it's more than that. Using AI to replicate a late voice talent's voice will make people more resistant to voice changes.

While I understand that James Earl Jones gave his consent to replicate his Vader's voice, I think it was kinda selfish to do so, because you CAN'T associate a character with a particular voice forever.

It's like you're telling your audience they can't accept any other voice for the character than that one.

I will outright say that what Jones did should be illegal. It's unethical and shortsighted and goodness knows if he wasn't being tricked into the whole thing, too.

[Dr. Casey]

AI is good and I favor its use in almost any regard. If the VA consents before their death then there isn't any problem here.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

AI is good and I favor its use in almost any regard.

I hope you enjoy being unemployed for the rest of your life.

[MasenkoHA]

Ethically, I don’t see an issue with AI being used to replicate a deceased voice actors if that voice actor gives their consent before their death. Especially with a character whose voice is as iconic as James Earl Jones voice is to Darth Vader. Pretty much no new voice actor is going to be accepted anyways. But Star Wars is like Dragon Ball where it would be just as well to not have any new material anyways.

As it pertains to voice acting and not any of the other uses , I mostly just think it’s tacky. The fact that billionaire dollar corporations are using those stupid AI voice overs like they’re making TikTok videos for their actual commercials instead of paying for voice actors is all kinds of cringe. But for a very specific role where only one actor has ever been associated with said character in that language for decades and decades and that actor gave their consent in the event of their death? Eh whatever


But as far as Dragon Ball is concerned. Once she departs to the next world to hang with Toriyama and King Yama should Masako Nozawa be replaced with a new voice actor or should Toei use AI to replicate her voice (with her consent) ? My answer is always going to be: We don’t need new Dragon Ball shows anyways.

[Metalwario64]

Can AI even do screaming convincingly yet?

[MasenkoHA]

Can AI even do screaming convincingly yet?

Probably not, but Dick Lasagna couldn’t either

https://youtu.be/NJwMbbP1MpM?si=eO09JGpqMJr3XPQg

[JulieYBM]

Ethically, I don’t see an issue with AI being used to replicate a deceased voice actors if that voice actor gives their consent before their death. Especially with a character whose voice is as iconic as James Earl Jones voice is to Darth Vader. Pretty much no new voice actor is going to be accepted anyways. But Star Wars is like Dragon Ball where it would be just as well to not have any new material anyways.

As it pertains to voice acting and not any of the other uses , I mostly just think it’s tacky. The fact that billionaire dollar corporations are using those stupid AI voice overs like they’re making TikTok videos for their actual commercials instead of paying for voice actors is all kinds of cringe. But for a very specific role where only one actor has ever been associated with said character in that language for decades and decades and that actor gave their consent in the event of their death? Eh whatever


But as far as Dragon Ball is concerned. Once she departs to the next world to hang with Toriyama and King Yama should Masako Nozawa be replaced with a new voice actor or should Toei use AI to replicate her voice (with her consent) ? My answer is always going to be: We don’t need new Dragon Ball shows anyways.

Jones isn't the only voice actor that Vader has had, though. Putting that aside, a culture where AI is accepted as a tool for art devalues the importance of the craft of making art and the human connection between artist and audience. Art is not something to merely be disposed of with no emotional attachment to it, and that's precisely what AI does.

The sort of anti-recasting culture that has developed in the online sphere over the past twenty years is really shameful, and definitely a side effect of schools and the government cutting and devaluing art programs. The lack of a broad understanding and experience with stage acting has hampered audiences ability to accept change and more than one interpretation of art, and I think that that's only playing into the hands of corporations seeking to monopolize the creation and distribution—and perception—of art.

[Cold Skin]

To me, it's quite simple: AI should be allowed for non-official "basic non-artist people" use for free entertainment while it shouldn't be allowed for any official, sold product.

For official products, we need a human quality, a human being able to discuss the intent with the director, a human artist with their own touch from their own preferences and experiences and even their own imperfections.

But for the common people who are not artists and not involved in official products? Yeah, just for fun, we should be able to show videos or make people listen to audio of "what if this character had been played by this actor?", "what if this game had a dub when it was never done?", "what if this song had been sung by this singer?", "what if YOU were in that scene from that movie?".

If I don't know how to draw properly but I think of Goku in a biker suit and I want the world to have a glimpse of what I saw in my mind, I'm not going to spend years learning how to draw properly just to show that, and I wouldn't want to say "well, since I don't know how to draw, nobody is ever gonna picture even roughly what I had in my mind". In that case, I don't have a talent, but AI will still show roughly what I imagined and let me share. And it will not be what a professional artist would have done, but it will do as a "rough draft of what's in my mind when I'm just a non-artist unable to show it in normal conditions".

So yeah, AI should be freely used by common, non-professional people for unofficial entertainment seen on YouTube for example (which would include short example scenes rather than a full movie for example). For making your avatar or your waiting screen on Twitch when you can't afford to have better or it's not worth it because you have 2 viewers. For the "everyday" people who don't have that skill, don't do it for a job and would simply never be able to have it done by any professional otherwise.

But for official products that are meant to bring money from customers down the line, AI should never be a replacer for actual artists who bring their expertise and human touch in every nuance, which customers pay for.
As such, actors' voices should be replaced when becoming unavailable, new talents are there to take over and will have that human quality.

For example, if Masako becomes unavailable when Super continues or a remake starts, a new cast member should absolutely take over rather than using AI that can just blindly follow instructions and mimic rather than grasp the essence of what's demanded by oneself and adapt accordingly and even improvise and surprise people.

Imagine the numerous Toriyama artworks without his human touch, the way his style gradually changed, the way his shading gradually changed when he moved to new tools, the way he always changed colors... Things like that might not have happened with an AI asked to "keep drawing in his style", asked to "use previous examples as a basis". The AI will act it its given frame of action. But humans will sometimes get out of it and offer something else if they feel it's the way to go for the creation being handled, and we need that.

[MasenkoHA]

Ethically, I don’t see an issue with AI being used to replicate a deceased voice actors if that voice actor gives their consent before their death. Especially with a character whose voice is as iconic as James Earl Jones voice is to Darth Vader. Pretty much no new voice actor is going to be accepted anyways. But Star Wars is like Dragon Ball where it would be just as well to not have any new material anyways.

As it pertains to voice acting and not any of the other uses , I mostly just think it’s tacky. The fact that billionaire dollar corporations are using those stupid AI voice overs like they’re making TikTok videos for their actual commercials instead of paying for voice actors is all kinds of cringe. But for a very specific role where only one actor has ever been associated with said character in that language for decades and decades and that actor gave their consent in the event of their death? Eh whatever


But as far as Dragon Ball is concerned. Once she departs to the next world to hang with Toriyama and King Yama should Masako Nozawa be replaced with a new voice actor or should Toei use AI to replicate her voice (with her consent) ? My answer is always going to be: We don’t need new Dragon Ball shows anyways.

Jones isn't the only voice actor that Vader has had, though. Putting that aside, a culture where AI is accepted as a tool for art devalues the importance of the craft of making art and the human connection between artist and audience. Art is not something to merely be disposed of with no emotional attachment to it, and that's precisely what AI does.

The sort of anti-recasting culture that has developed in the online sphere over the past twenty years is really shameful, and definitely a side effect of schools and the government cutting and devaluing art programs. The lack of a broad understanding and experience with stage acting has hampered audiences ability to accept change and more than one interpretation of art, and I think that that's only playing into the hands of corporations seeking to monopolize the creation and distribution—and perception—of art.

I’m sure there’s been other voice actors for Darth Vader but when people think Darth Vader they think James Earl Jones performance. Probably one of the most iconic voices in cinema.

But this is really an exception not a rule. Like, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill may have been the prolific voices for Batman and Joker for nearly 30 years but I’d hardly say they’re THE voice for Batman and Joker. I see zero reason to use AI to replicate Conroy and Hamil instead of continuing to hire new voice actors for Batman and Joker.

But I’m also way more in favor or just retiring a show/movie when its iconic actor passes on. Let new works of art happen instead of trying to continue it long past it’s performers own lifetimes

[Jord]

But as far as Dragon Ball is concerned. Once she departs to the next world to hang with Toriyama and King Yama should Masako Nozawa be replaced with a new voice actor or should Toei use AI to replicate her voice (with her consent) ? My answer is always going to be: We don’t need new Dragon Ball shows anyways.

Even if there were no new shows, they still would need her voice for commercials, video games and such.

Regarding AI, it's a wonderful tool and if it does a better job than the voice actors, I'm all for it. Some of the recasts have been very good, like Bulma's, but some others have done a mediocre job sounding like the original VA, like all the replacement Satans.

[SupremeKai25]

I approve of AI being used as I want Dragon Ball to continue.

I do not want Dragon Ball to stop. Why should only the 1980/1990s kids have the privilege of watching a new Dragon Ball show as it is being made? That's unfair and selfish.

Share your toys and let new generations get their own Dragon Ball shows to grew up with too, instead of only that old 1990 series.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

I approve of AI being used as I want Dragon Ball to continue.

I do not want Dragon Ball to stop. Why should only the 1980/1990s kids have the privilege of watching a new Dragon Ball show as it is being made? That's unfair and selfish.

Dragon Ball can continue, the question is whether it should continue to be made by actual people, or be handed over to AI instead.

[Jord]

DB could also use AI to generate in-between frames, in order to create more fluid animations, instead of the often herky--jerky animation we saw in Super.

[JulieYBM]

This thread is Hell incarnate.