Latest news with #Roadrunner:AFilmAbout
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gabby Petito murder documentary sparks viewer backlash after it uses fake AI voiceover
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Netflix's American Murder: Gabby Petito has upset some people for using an AI-generated voice to narrate Petito's journal entries. Despite permission from Petito's family, critics argue the AI voice raises ethical concerns. This isn't the first occurrence of such debate, and it will likely keep happening as the technology improves. Netflix's latest true-crime docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito, has stirred up a heated debate over how to deploy AI to mimic the voices of people who have passed away. The filmmakers employed AI to recreate Petito's voice and have it narrate excerpts from her personal writings, which has reportedly made many viewers feel uncomfortable and raised ethical concerns about using AI to give voice to the deceased. The three-part series chronicles the 2021 murder of 22-year-old Petito at the hands of her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. It pieces together her final months through interviews, personal videos, and social media posts, evoking how the tragedy happened in real-time on the internet. True crime aficionados famously dissected every frame of Petito's travel vlogs before authorities found her remains in Wyoming. At the start of the series, a disclaimer appears: 'Gabby's journal entries and text messages are brought to life in this series in her own voice, using voice recreation technology.' That means the voice narrating parts of the documentary isn't actually Petito's but a synthetic recreation made with an AI model. Netflix has said the filmmakers received permission from Petito's family to do so. That hasn't stopped some people from vocalizing how eerie the AI-generated voice feels. Social media content creators have racked up hundreds of thousands of views discussing it. This isn't the first controversy over AI-generated voices. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain faced similar criticism when its director revealed that parts of the documentary featured AI-generated narration of Bourdain's own words. That movie didn't indicate which bits were narrated by the AI or by Bourdain, which led many to feel that the technique was deceptive. Filmmaker Michael Gasparro defended the decision in an interview with Us Weekly, saying the team wanted to tell the story as much 'through Gabby's voice as possible.' They had access to a wealth of her journals, notes, and online posts and thought AI narration would bring them to life in a more powerful way. 'At the end of the day, it's her story.' Technology has always shaped the way we tell stories, but AI presents a new challenge, especially when it comes to memorializing people who can no longer speak for themselves. Robert Downey Jr. has vowed that AI will never replicate him on screen, while James Earl Jones secured a deal with Disney before passing away, allowing them to use his voice for Darth Vader under certain circumstances. Meanwhile, ElevenLabs has inked deals with the estates of James Dean, Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland, and Sir Laurence Olivier to let it add AI versions of their voices to its Reader app. As deepfake technology and voice cloning become more sophisticated, filmmakers and media companies will have to reckon with how (and if) these tools should be used to tell real-life stories. Robert Downey Jr. vows there will never be a digital AI replica of him on-screen How you can get (AI versions of) Judy Garland or Burt Reynolds to read to you Why the passing of James Earl Jones doesn't mean you won't hear Darth Vader's voice again
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gabby Petito's AI-faked voice in new Netflix documentary sparks viewer backlash
The Netflix docuseries 'American Murder: Gabby Petito' is facing backlash from some viewers who are questioning whether the filmmakers' decision to use artificial intelligence to recreate Petito's voice is ethical. Petito's disappearance and death made headlines in September 2021, with authorities launching a nationwide search for the 22-year-old after she'd documented a cross-country road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, on social media. Laundrie was considered a 'person of interest' before he disappeared. He later died by suicide, and a note was found in which he claimed responsibility, officials said. The three-part series, released this week, features interviews with Petito's loved ones, as well as photographs, video footage, maps and writing excerpts. A disclaimer in the first episode notes that Petito's journal entries and text messages were 'brought to life in this series in her own voice, using voice recreation technology.' While directors and executive producers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro told Us Weekly that Petito's family gave their 'blessing' to recreate her voice in the film, viewers online expressed their distaste for the creative choice. Some X users called it 'unsettling,' 'deeply uncomfortable,' and 'wholly unnecessary.' One TikTok video, which has garnered nearly 500,000 views, described the decision as a 'step too far.' A representative for Gasparro and Nason did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. A spokesperson for Netflix also did not immediately respond. The use of AI technology like this in documentaries is not new. But audiences appear to remain conflicted about hearing recreations of the voices of people who have died. In 2021, after AI voice recreation was used to bring written notes to life in 'Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain,' many fans of the food host, who died in 2018, had similar issues with director Morgan Neville's creative choice. The filmmaker used a software company to create an 'AI model' of Bourdain's voice. He told The New Yorker that viewers 'probably don't know' which lines are spoken by the AI model. In his statement to Us Weekly, Gasparro said the filmmakers "had so much material from her parents that we were able to get." "All of her journals since she was young and there was so much of her writing. She documented her trips and most of her life from a young age. We thought it was really important to bring that to life,' Gasparro told the publication. 'At the end of the day, we wanted to tell the story as much through Gabby as possible. It's her story.' Merve Hickok, president and policy director at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, a nonprofit research group, said the general use of voice recreation is not inherently unethical. Voice cloning to bring to life already public elements to amplify or make them more accessible is an 'OK use,' according to Hickok. But issues can arise when filmmakers share confidential content in a deeply personal way. 'The person made a decision to keep that private,' Hickok said. 'And it is not up to us. It's not up to any of us to make that decision on their behalf after they passed away.' "I think especially in a murder case, this person's voice is taken away against her will, so to come back and recreate that after her for commercial reasons is not ethical, regardless of whether there was a family approval or not,' Hickok added. Some of Petito's family members have since spoken to The Independent about the reaction to the voice recreation, reflecting on their decision to give filmmakers permission. 'I think it's weird and because we know her actual voice, [it] is a little off,' Nichole Schmidt, Petito's mom, told the publication. 'It's just hard to hear.' 'AI or her real voice, I still get upset hearing it knowing she's gone,' her stepfather, Jim Schmidt, added. In the future, Hickok, who is also the founder of does see the potential benefits of voice cloning for family to make 'pre-existing arrangements to use voice as a remembrance after a family member passes away.' But, she urged filmmakers to think of the 'negative risks,' adding that 'there aren't any regulations to put penalties around this.' 'I think the film industry has been around for a very long time, and they have very creative ways of creating that emotional reaction," Hickok said. 'So just because there's a new technology in town doesn't mean that it has to be used for such purposes.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Gabby Petito's AI-faked voice in new Netflix documentary sparks viewer backlash
The Netflix docuseries 'American Murder: Gabby Petito' is facing backlash from some viewers who are questioning whether the filmmakers' decision to use artificial intelligence to recreate Petito's voice is ethical. Petito's disappearance and death made headlines in September 2021, with authorities launching a nationwide search for the 22-year-old after she'd documented a cross-country road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, on social media. Laundrie was considered a 'person of interest' before he disappeared. He later died by suicide, and a note was found in which he claimed responsibility, officials said. The three-part series, released this week, features interviews with Petito's loved ones, as well as photographs, video footage, maps and writing excerpts. A disclaimer in the first episode notes that Petito's journal entries and text messages were 'brought to life in this series in her own voice, using voice recreation technology.' While directors and executive producers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro told Us Weekly that Petito's family gave their 'blessing' to recreate her voice in the film, viewers online expressed their distaste for the creative choice. Some X users called it ' unsettling,' ' deeply uncomfortable,' and ' wholly unnecessary.' One TikTok video, which has garnered nearly 500,000 views, described the decision as a 'step too far.' A representative for Gasparro and Nason did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. A spokesperson for Netflix also did not immediately respond. The use of AI technology like this in documentaries is not new. But audiences appear to remain conflicted about hearing recreations of the voices of people who have died. In 2021, after AI voice recreation was used to bring written notes to life in 'Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain,' many fans of the food host, who died in 2018, had similar issues with director Morgan Neville's creative choice. The filmmaker used a software company to create an 'AI model' of Bourdain's voice. He told The New Yorker that viewers 'probably don't know' which lines are spoken by the AI model. In his statement to Us Weekly, Gasparro said the filmmakers "had so much material from her parents that we were able to get." "All of her journals since she was young and there was so much of her writing. She documented her trips and most of her life from a young age. We thought it was really important to bring that to life,' Gasparro told the publication. 'At the end of the day, we wanted to tell the story as much through Gabby as possible. It's her story.' Merve Hickok, president and policy director at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, a nonprofit research group, said the general use of voice recreation is not inherently unethical. Voice cloning to bring to life already public elements to amplify or make them more accessible is an 'OK use,' according to Hickok. But issues can arise when filmmakers share confidential content in a deeply personal way. 'The person made a decision to keep that private,' Hickok said. 'And it is not up to us. It's not up to any of us to make that decision on their behalf after they passed away.' "I think especially in a murder case, this person's voice is taken away against her will, so to come back and recreate that after her for commercial reasons is not ethical, regardless of whether there was a family approval or not,' Hickok added. Some of Petito's family members have since spoken to The Independent about the reaction to the voice recreation, reflecting on their decision to give filmmakers permission. 'I think it's weird and because we know her actual voice, [it] is a little off,' Nichole Schmidt, Petito's mom, told the publication. 'It's just hard to hear.' 'AI or her real voice, I still get upset hearing it knowing she's gone,' her stepfather, Jim Schmidt, added. In the future, Hickok, who is also the founder of does see the potential benefits of voice cloning for family to make 'pre-existing arrangements to use voice as a remembrance after a family member passes away.' But, she urged filmmakers to think of the 'negative risks,' adding that 'there aren't any regulations to put penalties around this.' 'I think the film industry has been around for a very long time, and they have very creative ways of creating that emotional reaction," Hickok said. 'So just because there's a new technology in town doesn't mean that it has to be used for such purposes.'
