Alex Serdiuk, the CEO of Respeecher, has opened up on how Hollywood is scaling up its use of synthetic voice and voice cloning technology. Serdiuk told an invite-only Cannes confab that his company’s AI generated voice services are now being employed across the production cycle and by Hollywood stalwarts.
Brady Corbet has spoken about how Respeecher was used on The Brutalist. The technology was also used on Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, and to create the voice of a young Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian, as well as for Darth Vader’s voice in another Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Serdiuk said Disney was a pioneer in the use of synthetic voice “but now most of the studios are engaging with the technology and going far beyond just some post-production.” He suggested a lot more is in the pipeline – if not the public domain: “There are things we can’t yet publicly talk about.”
He was speaking at an event held during the first week of Cannes and against the backdrop of the Film Festival. Called ‘AI For Talent,’ it was part of the Cannes Market’s heavy lean into AI and next-gen technology. Respeecher execs will speak again during the Festival, at the new Village Innovation space.
There has been an attitude shift in recent times, the boss of Ukraine-based Respeecher said. “A couple of years ago, I would go to our clients, to Disney, Sony, Comcast, Warners, and I would say: ‘You’re using our technology for a couple of projects per year, that’s going to change, you’re going to use it throughout production, you’re going to use it in pre-production.’”
He recalled asking the studios what features they wanted in the platform he co-founded. “They were not able to answer because the question they were asking themselves was whether they would be using synthetic voice at scale. Now it has changed. I would say that over the last 12, maybe 15, months, it changed to how they would use synthetic voice at scale. They understood that the industry should navigate how we do that in a productive and responsible way.”
Addressing Industry Fears
The boss of the company that recreated the voice of James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader, spoke about industry fears about the dark side of AI.
“They are fearful and they have the right to be fearful, because AI does pose some threats to the way they made their living and the main assets they have built and have been nurturing. But AI is not a generalized term, and we should understand all the details of how exactly it’s used,” he said.
Referring to examples of Respeecher work he shared at the Cannes event, including audio from an AI-voiced Stan Lee, he added: “In all these examples, you can see that it’s used to enhance people. It’s used to empower creativity with respect to craft and to talent, which is extremely important in this industry. The best response to fear is quality and trust.”
There’s no question that using AI to recreate or finesse voice for film and TV remains a source of debate and controversy. Respeecher’s VP of Business Growth, Margarita Grubina, showed a slide bearing the title ‘How To Use AI And Not Cause Outrage’. She spoke about “the rule of four C’s” when it comes to the ethical use of AI, namely: Credit, Consent, Control and Compensation.
“You have to credit everyone involved,” she said. “You have to control how AI models with those voices are used and how the data is provided to your AI vendor. You have to get consent from everyone involved, especially from people whose voices you’re going to clone, as well as [discuss] compensation.”
“It’s very important to be transparent with both IP owners and the audience,” the Respeecher exec said.
While still contentious, use of synthetic voice is only increasing. Respeecher, which said there have been “zero cases of misuse” of its technology, works with voice artists. Grubina said it offers talent a new way to scale and monetize their work.
“We have a voice talent program where we encourage [talent] to clone their voices,” she explained. “We let them choose how their voices will be available on the platform, whether it’s publicly or it’s private, and the models that will be used. We have a bunch of voice actors on our platform already and we also have partnered with some famous estates.”
The post From Darth Vader To Stan Lee: Respeecher CEO Alex Serdiuk On Hollywood’s Growing Use Of AI Voice Technology appeared first on Deadline.
