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Daily Record
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scots voiceover artist claims Edinburgh bus company used AI version of her voice without permission
It comes less than a week after another artist revealed a synthetic version of her voice had been used on board ScotRail trains. A Scots voiceover artist has condemned an AI company for creating a synthetic version of her voice - which she says has been used for announcements on public buses in Edinburgh. Diane Brooks says Belgian company Acapela is guilty of "stealing her vocal soul" after they used voice recordings she made for them 11 years ago. The synthetic voice, known as "Rhona", has allegedly been supplied to bus operator Lothian to use for passenger announcements. Diane believes Rhona may have also been used by other transport operators, and thinks other voiceover artists are likely to have been similarly treated. She said: "I am sorry to say and unbeknown to me, my voice is the voice on Lothian buses. I had done a text-to-speech (TTS) project in 2014 when TTS was in its infancy and had known my voice was on Acapela as Rhona, but thought it wouldn't get used as it has been. "I have felt very strongly for a long time that I had to do something, but felt a bit alone about it all, and what chance would I have against a big corporate company?" It comes less than a week after another Scots voiceover artist revealed an AI-generated version of her voice had also been used on public transport in Scotland. Midlothian-based Gayanne Potter recently revealed an AI version of her voice had been used for announcements on ScotRail trains, which left her feeling "violated". The voice, known as "Iona", replaced older messages on some routes which were recorded by a human. Gayanne says it is based on recordings she made in 2021 for ReadSpeaker, a Swedish company. Diane said when it was revealed that Gayanne's voice had been used by ScotRail, "it has given me the strength to do something about it, as it's an infringement of my rights as a voiceover artist". She added: "The worst thing is that I have no control of my own voice. I don't know where it will end up and basically, they have stolen my vocal soul. At first I was quite upset, but now I'm really angry. It's not right. "It's a relief to know I am not the only one who is in the situation and am sure more voiceover artists will come out of the woodwork with the same issue. We must stick together and show a united approach to it all and we can't let these big corporate companies take away our identities and our livelihoods." Diane said she was now taking legal advice"as I want to make sure I have all the ammo I need to take on these companies that really take advantage in the most profitable way for them". She said: "I hope strength in numbers will truly resolve this issue as AI is becoming increasingly dominant in everything we do and as voiceover artists we must be better protected in our work." Her work has included BBC Bitesize, TV and radio advertisements, and announcements for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She said she had recorded phrases for her agent, Scottish Voiceovers, now part of Voquent, on behalf of Acapela, but she had not been clear what they were to be used for and did not remember signing a contract. The recordings were later used by Acapela to create Rhona. Diane said: "You are trusting your agent to do the best for you and look at things." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Performing arts union Equity said such cases had become common, which it said infringed its members' rights. Liam Budd, its industrial official for recorded media, said: "It is extremely exploitative for companies to use and commercialise voice recordings to create digital replicas of artists from contracts which pre-date the development of generative AI or were not drafted explicitly for this purpose. "Sadly, we have heard from numerous performers who have lost control over their voice or likeness, and had their privacy and likeness hijacked through the misuse of AI. Such misuse is an attack on our members' fundamental rights. "The union continues to call on the [UK] government for legal certainty around the use of historic contracts for AI-purposes and greater enforcement of existing GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] laws, which give our members much-needed protections, but are currently being ignored." A spokesperson for Lothian, which is owned by the City Of Edinburgh Council, said: "We have two different passenger information systems in use. One uses a recording of a commissioned voice artist for mp3 playback, and the other uses a text-to-speech engine to synthesize a voice. "Lothian is a licensed user of the text-to-speech engine, which originates from our equipment supplier and as such we were not involved in its creation." Lothian added the engine had been supplied by a passenger information equipment provider, which it has yet to name. It said it had "no direct agreement or contract with Acapela". The City of Edinburgh Council said it had nothing to add. Acapela, Voquent and Scottish Voiceovers have been approached for comment.
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
I don't have any time for AI stealing our actors' voices
Telephonist Pat Simmons making recordings for TIM, the GPO.'s telephone Speaking Clock service in 1963. (Photo by Ronald Dumont/Daily Express/) I discovered something surprising the other day. BT's speaking clock still exits. The voice sounds the same as it always did and the script has hardly altered since my childhood, the only change being the insertion of a sponsor's name. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Dial 123 and you will hear the familiar tones informing you that 'at the third stroke the time, brought to you by O2, will be 5.27 and thirty seconds.' I was phoning for research purposes, but it it did make me wonder who uses it. In this day and age, when few people make calls on their landline, and most of us have a phone with a clock on the front, do we need this service? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In case you're wondering, when I ended the call to 123, I checked the time on my handset and it was 5.27. I'm not sure if it was a real person. It's sometimes difficult to tell. It definitely was a human voice at one time, but whether it has been sampled is unclear. The same is true of the voiceover announcements on the newer Lothian Buses vehicles. On the old buses, you can tell it's a woman reading off a script, but the new ones sound mechanical. There has been a lot of fuss this week about ScotRail's 'Iona', an AI-generated avatar whose voice has been from sampled the actual speech of Scottish actor Gayanne Potter, used without her permission. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It was taken from a job she did in 2021 for the Swedish company ReadSpeaker. Understandably she feels 'violated' and asks 'Why continue to choose a dreadful AI version of me when I'm right here?' If you go on to the BBC News website, you can compare the two. When you listen to Gayanne herself and Iona making the same announcements, you can tell it is definitely the same voice. However, while Gayanne has a warm human tone with varied colours, Iona sounds stilted and robotic. I find AI-generated announcements sinister. They have a similar disembodied feel to the messages that hostages are forced to read, reassuring their friends and family that they are alive and well. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's definitely their voice, but devoid of emotion as they are speaking the kidnappers' words from a script. A former girlfriend of mine is an actor. Her first professional job when she left drama school was reading the Reading-to-London bus timetable, which was available as a 24-hour phone service. Her grandparents in Sunderland were so proud of her that they used to regularly phone up the timetable to hear Carol's voice. She later went on to have a successful career on stage and TV, yet that voiceover job was the first rung on the ladder for her. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Some actors specialise in voiceover work and for them it is their major source of income. The increasing use of AI is a huge threat to them. In the case of Gayanne Potter, it amounts to theft. ReadSpeaker should have asked for her permission and paid a fee before using her voice. However, human voices are not always the best option. I once did a voiceover job for an advert featuring Kerry Katona. It took her six takes to get her own name right. If we'd used AI, we'd have got home a lot quicker.
The National
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
I've voiced ScotRail trains for 20 years. No one told me AI was replacing me
Fletcher Mathers, a Scottish voiceover artist and actress with credits on Shetland and Taggart, has told The National she was sent a recording of the AI announcer by her friend who asked if she had been replaced. The Government-owned train operator recently rolled out 'Iona', an AI voice on some routes, which replaced older messages recorded by Mathers since 2005. READ MORE: SNP's 2026 candidates 'ignore' grassroots independence campaigners While established Scottish voiceover artist and actress Gayanne Potter is seeking 'an apology from ScotRail and an acknowledgement they have made a mistake' when basing "Iona" on recordings she made in 2021 without her consent, Mathers has revealed she also had no knowledge of the AI rollout. 'I got a WhatsApp message from a friend, an audio message, and she just went, 'listen to this,' and she was on the train. She recorded the voiceover on the train and let me hear it. 'And that's the first I knew that they were looking at changing over to AI,' Mathers shared. 'To be honest, after 20 years, it was a bit hurtful that they hadn't informed me that they were changing. 'I get things are moving in that direction. But I think we have be really careful about it and just let people know. Let people know if their voices are going to be taken over by AI.' Mathers then got in touch with her agent, who went to ScotRail and asked if their client was now out of a contact. ScotRail told Mather's agent which trains the AI has now been rolled out on and contracted the actress for another six months of usage. 'I think that was the compromise that ScotRail and my agent came to: That I would be paid for six months of usage,' Mathers, originally from just outside Perth, explained, adding: 'There's not much I can do. I do the voiceover, and I love that job. 'That's a third of my life I've been the voice on ScotRail. I don't take it for granted. I love the job. I think it's quite a privilege to do that job to be the voice that so many people hear.' Passengers also don't take her for granted. One 21-year-old man wrote to Mathers thanking her 'on behalf of all passengers' for her voice making him feel cared for when his living situation didn't feel safe as a child. A woman also got in touch and thanked her for keeping her company when travelling to her husband who was undergoing chemotherapy in hospital. Mathers shared: 'She said 'I never felt lonely because I felt as if you were with me on the train,' and that's a lovely thing for someone to say. They would no one will say that with an AI voice.' READ MORE: Pat Kane: Language really matters if we're to save ourselves from AI overlords Mathers isn't necessarily upset about the move to AI, but the way in which it has been handled for all involved. She stressed her support for Potter as well as voiceover artist Diane Brooks — a second Scottish woman who has discovered a synthetic version of her voice being used, this time on Edinburgh bus operator Lothian Buses. 'I know I'm not there forever. I thought what might happen is they may go with a male Scots voice after me. I didn't know that it would be so quickly to AI." From what Mathers understands, the AI's possibly not quite ready, and she doubts it's ability to pronounce words in Scots. 'I would like them to wait until it's ready. I haven't heard much of it, but I'm not sure it's good on the 'CH' pronunciation in Scots. Mathers works with Braw Clan, a Scots language theatre company, to create plays in Scots for audiences in Clydesdale and southern Scotland. "We cannot put out an AI system that mispronounces key aspects of the Scots language. And this is a national company — it's important," she said. 'Its intonation pattern doesn't sound quite right. So why not wait until it's ready? 'It feels rushed and feels kind of lurched towards it.' She added: "Let's just stop for a moment and think, take a more considered and careful path moving forward, a path on which which people own their own body and voice, a path in which multinationals pay for their voiceovers in a fair and just manner, a path in which people are informed in advance if their work is being replaced by AI. "Let's simply be human, be thoughtful and respectful to everyone involved. That's surely the answer." The rail operator has told media it does not intend to remove the AI voice from its trains. A sign of changing times Since originally recording announcements two decades ago with the team who rolled out the voiceover on the Hong Kong underground, Mathers has intermittently recorded and re-recorded updated lines. Around 10 years ago, Mathers changed agent and ScotRail struggled to get in touch with her. 'But they sought me out for that continuity,' Mathers stressed, comparing the contrasting treatment she has faced in the last week. 'If I'd been the announcer on them for two years or five years, maybe even seven years, then fair enough, but I've been there for 20 years.' Mathers has still not been contacted by anyone from ScotRail and is in the dark on whether her voice will disappear suddenly from the trains. 'I hope they use both,' she said, referring to human voices and AI, adding: 'I think there's a place for both. I think, for example, when you arrive at a station, I could say, 'you are now arriving in Edinburgh Waverley,' or whatever, and then if there's a delay or something changes, AI could be helpful in updating that.' READ MORE: Labour's migration crackdown will shrink UK economy, expert analysis says 'Even if AI can say the words right, it doesn't have the same feeling. It's that connection that matters." When The National approached ScotRail, a spokesperson said: 'ScotRail has been in contact with Fletcher Mathers' agent and confirmed that her voice would be used on all of the remaining trains in our fleet until at least December 2025.' The voice, 'Iona,' is the same that will be used on a remote real time system currently being developed for future use, the operator shared. They added: 'Place names and words can be entered phonetically. Milngavie is input as Mill-guy, Achnasheen as Akna-sheen for instance. This ensures that ScotRail staff have control over the current pronunciation of stations throughout the country. "It has been used on the class 156 fleet for small additional announcements in relation to East Kilbride, and also on the HST trains for announcements to advise of things like single door operation.'
Scotsman
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
'I became the AI voice of Lothian Buses, but didn't know about it', says angry Scottish voiceover artist
Second woman discovers a synthetic version of her voice being used by a Scottish transport operator - in this case, Lothian Buses. Sign up for the latest news and analysis about Scottish transport Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A Glasgow voiceover artist has accused an AI company of 'stealing her vocal soul' for creating an synthetic version of her voice that has been supplied to Edinburgh bus operator Lothian for announcements. Diane Brooks told The Scotsman that other artists were likely to have been similarly treated after Midlothian-based Gayanne Potter revealed an AI version of her voice had been used by ScotRail for train announcements. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Voiceover artist Diane Brooks in her studio near Glasgow on Thursday | John Devlin/The Scotsman Ms Brooks said her voice recordings made 11 years ago for Belgian company Acapela had been used to created a synthetic voice known as 'Rhona'. She thought Rhona may also have been used by other transport operators. 'I am sorry to say and unbeknown to me, my voice is the voice on Lothian buses,' Ms Brooks said. 'I had done a text-to-speech (TTS) project in 2014 when TTS was in its infancy and had known my voice was on Acapela as Rhona, but thought it wouldn't get used as it has been. 'I have felt very strongly for a long time that I had to do something, but felt a bit alone about it all, and what chance would I have against a big corporate company?' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Brooks said when Ms Potter revealed an AI version of her voice, known as Iona, had been used by ScotRail, 'it has given me the strength to do something about it, as it's an infringement of my rights as a voiceover artist'. ScotRail said Ms Potter's dispute was with Swedish firm ReadSpeaker, which supplied Iona. Gayanne Potter wants ScotRail to remove the 'Iona' AI version of her voice from its train announcements | Gayanne Potter Ms Brooks said: 'The worst thing is that I have no control of my own voice. I don't know where it will end up and basically, they have stolen my vocal soul. At first I was quite upset, but now I'm really angry. It's not right. 'It's a relief to know I am not the only one who is in the situation and am sure more voiceover artists will come out of the woodwork with the same issue. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We must stick together and show a united approach to it all and we can't let these big corporate companies take away our identities and our livelihoods.' Ms Brooks said she was now taking legal advice 'as I want to make sure I have all the ammo I need to take on these companies that really take advantage in the most profitable way for them'. 'I hope strength in numbers will truly resolve this issue as AI is becoming increasingly dominant in everything we do and as voiceover artists we must be better protected in our work,' she said. Ms Brooks' work has included for BBC Bitesize, TV and radio commercials, and announcements for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The artist said she had recorded phrases for her agent, Scottish Voiceovers, now part of Voquent, on behalf of Acapela, but she had not been clear what they were to be used for and did not remember signing a contract. The recordings were later used by Acapela to create Rhona. Ms Brooks said: 'You are trusting your agent to do the best for you and look at things.' Performing arts union Equity said such cases had become common, which it said infringed its members' rights. Liam Budd, its industrial official for recorded media, said: 'It is extremely exploitative for companies to use and commercialise voice recordings to create digital replicas of artists from contracts which pre-date the development of generative AI or were not drafted explicitly for this purpose. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Sadly, we have heard from numerous performers who have lost control over their voice or likeness, and had their privacy and likeness hijacked through the misuse of AI. Such misuse is an attack on our members' fundamental rights. 'The union continues to call on the [UK] government for legal certainty around the use of historic contracts for AI-purposes and greater enforcement of existing GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] laws, which give our members much-needed protections, but are currently being ignored.' A spokesperson for Lothian, which is owned by the City Of Edinburgh Council, said: 'We have two different passenger information systems in use. One uses a recording of a commissioned voice artist for mp3 playback, and the other uses a text-to-speech engine to synthesize a voice. 'Lothian is a licensed user of the text-to-speech engine, which originates from our equipment supplier and as such we were not involved in its creation.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Lothian said the engine had been supplied by a passenger information equipment provider, which it has yet to name. It said it had 'no direct agreement or contract with Acapela'.
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
'Violated': Voiceover artist demands ScotRail removes her voice from new AI announcements
The voice, dubbed Iona, is being used for announcements on ScotRail services across the country. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A Scottish voiceover artist has called for ScotRail to remove her voice from its new AI train announcements system because she never agreed to its use. Gayanne Potter, whose work also includes the 'Voice of God' introductions to ITV News, said she felt 'violated' because her voice had been used for a different purpose to what she had agreed with the Swedish company that provided the system. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Councillors will discuss ScotRail's plans to reduce opening hours of ticket offices including four in Fife. (Pic: John Devlin) | John Devlin/The Scotsman A synthetic version of Ms Potter's voice, known as Iona, has been used on some ScotRail trains since July last year, replacing its pre-recorded human voice announcements. The Scottish Government-owned operator said the move was to 'make announcements more modern and reflective of the routes the train serves'. 'Nobody told me' Edinburgh-born Ms Potter, who is based in Midlothian, said she was in dispute with ReadSpeaker, which had supplied Iona, and called for ScotRail to revert to a human voice. ScotRail said the dispute was between her and ReadSpeaker and it had 'no plans' to remove the voice. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Writing on her Facebook page, Ms Potter said: 'I discovered last week that ScotRail's new horrible AI train announcer Iona is in fact using my voice data - and nobody told me. 'I have been in dispute with a company in Sweden, ReadSpeaker, for over two years to get my voice data removed from their website.' Ms Potter said in 2021 she had understood that her voice would be used by the firm 'to provide text to speech recordings to be used for translation purposes from foreign language copy pasted into their site, and as an accessibility tool for people with visual impairment'. Two years later, she discovered it was also being used for Iona, along with an AI-generated image of a red-haired woman, which was marketed by ReadSpeaker 'for much wider purposes'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gayanne Potter called for ScotRail to use a human voice instead of AI | Gayanne Potter Ms Potter said the company refused to stop using her voice, despite offering to repay her fee, and she was now pursuing the case through lawyers. She said: 'I will not let this rest. So imagine my distress when I discover that ScotRail have installed the ReadSpeaker model Iona that contains my biometric voice data as their new announcer on their trains. 'I did not know. I was not asked. I did not consent. I was not given a choice. 'Four years ago, we didn't have the AI we use now. You cannot consent to something that doesn't exist. You should be able to withdraw your consent at any point. Readspeaker won't let me. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Why choose a dreadful AI version of me' 'It's not about money. It's about my identity. I feel violated. 'ScotRail should employ a real human irrespective of who it is. Why continue to choose a dreadful AI version of me when I'm right here - and I know how to pronounce Milngavie?' ScotRail said Iona had been used for supplementary announcements on its Class 156 diesel trains, which operate on routes including north of Inverness, and High Speed Trains - inter-city services - over the past ten months. The system has also been used on its class 380 trains, whose routes include in Ayrshire and Inverclyde, for the last two weeks. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Its spokesperson said: 'It would be a matter for Ms Potter to take up with ReadSpeaker, who her contract is with. We have no plans to remove the voice from our trains.' ReadSpeaker chief marketing officer Roy Lindemann said: "We are aware of Ms Potter's concerns. ReadSpeaker and Ms Potter have a contract regarding the use of her voice. 'ReadSpeaker has comprehensively addressed Ms Potter's concerns with her legal representative several times in the past."
