Actor Morgan Freeman has called out unauthorised artificial intelligence imitations of himself, becoming the latest Hollywood star to criticise the technology.
Freeman, whose recognisable baritone has become a staple of his persona, slammed the AI imitations on social media platform X.
“Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me,” he wrote.
“Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful.”
Freeman also captioned the post with the hashtags “#scam #imitation #IdentityProtection”.
A quick search of the internet quickly finds links to sites that promise an “AI Morgan Freeman Voice”.
In early June, CEO of Freeman’s production company Revelations Lori McCreary told Deadline she had been fooled by an AI deepfake of the Shawshank Redemption star.
“Let’s try to build the tool and get the tools ready so when things come out, we know that they’re real,” she said.
“I’d like to have a bug that says this is the real Morgan.”
Freeman isn’t the first actor to oppose the imitation of their voice by AI.
In May, Scarlett Johansson said she was “angered” to hear an OpenAI chatbot voice that sounded “eerily similar” to her own.
OpenAI said it planned to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices that resembled Johansson, who famously voiced a fictional, and at the time futuristic, AI assistant in the 2013 film Her.
And 200 artists, including Billie Eilish and Katy Perry, warned in April of a “race to the bottom” if AI remained unchecked.
Several major record companies, including Universal Music Group, Capitol Records and Sony Music Entertainment, also announced they were suing AI song-generators Suno and Udio for copyright infringement last week.
ABC
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