Two American voice actors file lawsuit against AI startup Lovo

TapTechNews May 19th news, according to The New York Times report, two American voice actors, Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage, recently claimed that the AI startup Lovo copied their voices without their permission and filed a lawsuit against the company.

The cause of the incident was that last summer when the two were driving, they heard a podcast program about the rise of AI and talked about how AI would pose a threat to the lives of writers, actors, and other entertainment industry practitioners. And in this episode, the host interviewed a chatbot named Poe, whose voice sounded just like Paul's original voice.

Paul said that the situation was like the host interviewing himself, and he was talking loudly to the audience about the dangers of AI and its potential impact on the entertainment industry. We parked the car by the side of the road and sat there, feeling incredible. We tried to figure out what exactly happened and what we should do.

The two claimed that a startup company Lovo in Berkeley, California, illegally used their voices to create technology that competes with their voice works. Not only Paul, but Linnea also found that her voice was used to train AI.

In the lawsuit filed in the Manhattan Federal Court this week, the couple said that anonymous Lovo employees invited them to provide some voice clips in 2019 and 2020, but did not disclose how these clips would be used. Letters cited in the lawsuit showed that an anonymous person contacted Linnea at that time and paid her $400 to record several radio scripts and explained that these recordings would not be used for public purposes. Paul said, We hope to regain control of our voices, our identities, and our careers.

The representative lawyer of Lovo denied the claims in the lawsuit. If the user agrees to provide recordings to Lovo, then there is no problem.