Persona 5 voice actor leaves Twitter after harassment over AI

Erica Lindbeck, popular video game voice actor known for her role as Futaba in Persona 5 and Jessie in Final Fantasy 7 Remake deleted her Twitter account following harassment over AI programs imitating voice actors. The problem started when Lindbeck was made aware of a video that used AI to replicate her voice as Futaba and used it to sing lyrics to a Bo Burnham song.

Lindbeck and other voice actors requested that the video be taken down, and the creator took it down. So far, so normal. Then the video started reappearing under other accounts. Lindbeck said it felt like a violation to have her voice used without consent for someone else’s purposes, and the backlash from that comment, which circulated on ResetEra as well, snowballed until she deleted her account.

Other voice actors tweeted their support for Lindbeck and expanded on the industry’s concerns over AI to try and help people understand. 

“The worst part for me about the current AI situation is that now I don’t feel comfortable doing voicelines of my characters for fans, in case they are recording me to put into AI,” Erin Fitzgerald, known for their role as Chie Satonaka in Persona 4 among other roles, said on Twitter.

I was sent an audio file of a character I did in an AI voice, saying a thing I would never condone. Despite how poorly done the AI was, it’s only going to get stronger, and the sound of my voice saying those words sickened my heart. It’s not about being replaced in jobs… (1/2)

— Kaitlyn Robrock (Blue Checkmark Here) (@kaitlynrobrock) July 9, 2023

Kyle McCarley posted a lengthy thread explaining just a few of the problems with the situation, including the fact that actors don’t own their own performances of these characters. Using them in unapproved ways threatens the actor’s standing with their clients, and if the fake is good enough, clients could even believe an actor said something inappropriate or hateful when it was actually an AI model.

We've all seen the joke videos of Joe Biden and Donald Trump heckling each other on voice chat while they're playing Overwatch. What happens when that joke isn't so easy to identify? What happens when people start creating convincing fakes of people saying believable things?

— Kyle McCarley (@KyleMcCarley) July 6, 2023

While the WGA writer’s strike began in part over the lack of protections against AI that writers and actors had, there has been no similar movement yet in the animation and voice acting sectors.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF