26 anime voice actors and actresses form group to speak out against unauthorized generative AI

Voices of Frieza, Spike Spiegel, and Edward Elric have something to say.

This week,Koichi Yamadera (the voice of Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Spiegel), Romi Park (Fullmetal Alchemist’s Edward Elric), Ryusei Nakao (Dragon Ball’s Frieza), and 23 other prominent anime voice actors and actresses announced a new project they’re collaborating on. If that sounds like way too large a cast for an initial cast reveal for a new anime project, you’re right, because they weren’t announcing a new animated TV series of theatrical feature, but instead a collective stance against unauthorized use of performers’ voices by generative AI.

The awareness project, which is called “No More Unauthorized Generative AI” (or “No More Mudan Seisei AI,” in Japanese), has posted a video to its YouTube channel, with Nakao making the opening statement.

“Someone was selling my voice without permission. I was shocked. Our voices are our livelihoods. They are our lives. Please listen to how it makes us, as voice actors, feel when our voices are used without permission for generative AI,” says Nakao, followed by the 26 members of the project shouting in unison “No more unauthorized Generative AI!”

Those feelings are expanded upon in a press release from the group, which says:

Readings and songs that we have no memory of recording, and our voices themselves, have been uploaded to the Internet, sometimes being offered for sale. Our voices are our livelihoods. They are our lives, an important part of who we are that we have grown up with. Even if these uploads are coming from fans who want to hear more of our voices, it brings us no joy for our voices to be used without permission.

New technologies are likely to bestow great benefits upon humanity in the future, but at the same time, we want all of us, together, to broaden our perspective to consider each other’s feelings, what kind of culture that future will have, and discuss how those technologies will be used. We have created this video as a way to start that process.

Rather than hurtful words and retaliation, we hope to create cultural rules through peaceful discussions with the involvement of experts in order to see eye-to-eye, to protect the fertile soil in which good works can be created for the next 10, the next 20 years.

No More Unauthorized Generative AI’s statement comes less than a month after Aoni Production, one of Japan’s highest-profile talent agencies for anime voice actors and actresses, said it will be entering into a partnership with AI company CoeFont to create AI versions of the voices of a number of its performers, including the voice of Dragon Ball’s Goku, Masako Nozawa, for applications in “non-acting” projects. It’s worth noting, though, that No More Unauthorized Generative AI’s message is centered on unauthorized (and by extension non-compensated) use, and isn’t being framed as a blanket indictment of replicating performers’ voices using AI.

The complete list of voice performers currently part of the project consists of Michihiro Ikemizu, Yoji Ueda, Yuko Kaida, Yuki Kaji, Tomie Kataoka, Mika Kanai, Kujira, Shuhei Sakaguchi, Chika Sakamoto, Shunsuke Sakuys, Yuko Sasaki, Bin Shimada, Yu Shimamura, Tarusuke Shinkagi, Toshihiko Seki, Ryota Takeuchi, Hiroki Touchi, Ryusei Nakao, Joji Nakata, Daisuke Namikawa, Romi Park, Rika Fukami, Juna Fukuyama, Katsuhisa Hoki, Mitsuru Miyamoto, and Koichi Yamadera. The members plan to release individual videos expressing their personal feelings on the unauthorized use of voices for generative AI as well.

Source: YouTube/ NOMORE無断生成AI, Otaku Kenkyu via Yahoo! Japan News
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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