Some voice actors embrace AI's potential. Others worry it's coming for their jobs

Yahoo

21-03-2025

Like many in his field, voiceover actor Jesse Adam has been watching the rise of AI with a wary eye.
"You start hearing better voiceover produced by AI and you're like, OK, this could be some serious competition," says the Saskatchewan native, who over the course of his decade-long career has lent his voice to dozens of projects, including Marvel video games and Starbucks commercials.
With AI capabilities advancing at a seemingly exponential rate, he realizes he faces an uphill battle.
'I got to the point where I was like, there's no way we're going to be able to fight this. This isn't going away."
So rather than resist the tide, he's decided to lean into it.
Adam has long worked with a platform called Voices.com, which connects voice actors with businesses for commercial and corporate work. Last summer, the company, based in London, Ont., launched a new AI Studio initiative, which allows clients to buy clones of real actors' voices for text-to-speech projects.
The company says it allows its talent to opt out at any time, and Adam was fully on board with that.
He hopes for a future where his voice clone generates passive income and gives him the freedom to pursue passion projects.
'The industry is changing and I need to adapt or I'm going to get left behind," he says.
Adam spent roughly 20 hours recording a range of emotional performances for the service — everything from 'happy and upbeat' to 'sad and down.' Since then, he's been paid for about 100 jobs, mostly for training videos. Each time his AI-cloned voice is used, he gets an email notification.
'It's not paying a ton of money, but it's also money that I wouldn't have had otherwise,' says Adam, noting the service pays him about 10 cents per word and he usually makes more working with clients directly. He hopes to scale up as demand for the service grows.
"I think for some talent, the amount of work they'll get through their AI clones will be significant and will pay the bills and be lucrative."
About 30 voice actors have opted into Voice.com's AI Studio, according to the company's chief technology officer Dheeraj Jalali. He says the platform expanded into AI text-to-speech services after seeing how quickly the technology was evolving.
'We thought, hey, let's use this technology as an enabler instead of being fearful of it,' he says.
Jalali explains actors who consent to having their voices used can set their own per-word rates, with the company taking a percentage of the earnings. They can specify words or phrases they don't want their voice to generate, and talent can view the scripts their AI voice was used for after the fact. He says the service is primarily used for training programs, ebooks and website user interfaces. Since AI can't take artistic direction, Jalali notes voice actors are still being hired traditionally for commercials, films and TV shows.
'When it comes to mass media, voiceover actors are still there. I don't see any near future where they're getting replaced,' he says.
But that's precisely what has many actors and labour groups sounding the alarm. The entertainment industry has weathered a rough couple of years, with Hollywood strikes and fewer Canadian commissions slowing things down. The animation sector has been hit especially hard.
According to the Canadian Media Producers Association, animation production in Canada plummeted by 55 per cent in 2023-24, following a pandemic-era surge that briefly reignited investments.
In the midst of this downturn, voice actors are on alert when it comes to AI. As the technology becomes more skilled at mimicking human voices, many fear being pushed aside and watching their craft lose value.
Toronto's Gabbi Kosmidis has spent years breathing life into animated characters, and she worries that an illicit, synthetic version of her voice could replace her entirely.
'I know a lot of voice actors who are struggling to find work right now. The industry is slow for a plethora of reasons, and AI has been this scary, looming thing,' says Kosmidis, who voices the lead in 'Night of the Zoopocalypse,' an animated Canadian horror comedy that did not use AI, and is currently in theatres.
She fears a near future where companies 'could take your voice and use it forever and ever and ever.'
'It's pretty scary in terms of voiceover work. It may make your job obsolete.'
In light of these fears, labour unions in Canada and the U.S. have been working to ensure members have protections against AI in contracts with producers.
ACTRA's newly ratified Independent Production Agreement has language giving actors the right to fair compensation and full consent if their voice or likeness are used to create a synthetic performer.
Still, 'a collective bargaining agreement is not enough alone to address all concerns on such a rapidly evolving technology,' ACTRA national president Eleanor Noble said in a statement.
She added the organization is urging the Liberal government to create 'strong legislation which will protect performers' likenesses and jobs from AI misuse, along with protecting all Canadian workers.'
As the government drafts its proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, ACTRA is lobbying to ensure any future legislation would grant performers the right to fair compensation and control over all AI uses of their voice and likeness.
AI text-to-speech services signal a 'race to the bottom' where voiceover artists will get paid less and less for their work, says Kunal Sen, creative director of Vancouver-based animation studio Good Bad Habits, which works on a variety of projects, including films and commercials.
'I definitely see a devaluing of work in this sphere. I would never not hire an actual person to do voiceover work,' he says.
'If a brand needs someone to say something in a video and it doesn't have to be Morgan Freeman or some celebrity, now they can just be like, 'OK, let's just cut the budget from this and put it somewhere else.' It's never been easier to do that.'
Jalali acknowledges that AI may drive down voiceover rates but argues that it also allows actors to scale their work.
'Voiceover actors have a way bigger opportunity now,' he says.
He envisions a near future where actors license their voices to companies, who will 'have the potential to do multiple projects with your voice in different use cases."
He says performers can now tell clients: "Hey, here's my voice. Now go scale with this voice and I'll benefit from it, too, because my AI voice can say a million words a day. I can only say maybe a thousand."
"So it just scales up in ways that were not possible beforehand.'
Kosmidis remains apprehensive about AI, believing it compromises the quality of performances in the long run.
'I personally would never want to listen to a robot, even if that robot sounds very human. Knowing that it's not really human, to me feels weird and disconnected,' she says.
Kosmidis questions whether AI can truly capture emotional nuance or deliver humour effectively. However, she concedes it's likely only a matter of time before it masters the art of crying.
"Bursting into tears. I mean, who can't do that? In this economy?'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2025.
Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press