Baldur's Gate 3 Shadowheart actor Jennifer English has advice for AI pushers: 'Don't'
Pay no attention to the well-heeled gentlemen whispering 'What if it's a bubble?' behind the curtain—AI is the all-revolutionising tech that's here to change the world. Ubisoft reckons AI is a revolution for games on par with "the shift to 3D." EA's buyers plan to lean on AI to make its $20 billion debt disappear. Microsoft's AI boss doesn't understand why some folk don't like AI! Which, to be fair, might also be true for me if my generous executive pay package depended on me not understanding it.
But one person who's not all in on the AI-fication of everything is voice actor Jennifer English, who you almost certainly know as Baldur's Gate 3's Shadowheart and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Maelle. In a chat with GamesRadar at this year's Golden Joystick Awards, English had one piece of advice for anyone looking to apply generative AI to games: "Don't."
Which is a pretty easy rule to follow, as rules go, but English does develop her thoughts a little further. "I get it, that AI is a tool. I get it. But not for—not to replace creativity. Mistakes are beautiful. Flaws are wonderful. Keep them in. Keep it human.
"Be cool, guys. Don't be weird."
Sage advice, and well-timed. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we wrote about Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney wading into the debate around AI voices in Arc Raiders to write starry-eyed paeans to a hypothetical future of "infinite, context-sensitive, personality-reflecting dialog based on and tuned by human voice actors." Backing him up? Nexon CEO Junghun Lee, who said that "Every game company is now using AI" anyway.
Canny readers might note that it sure seems to be executives and money-men who get excited about this stuff, and not voice actors themselves. Indeed, English is essentially echoing comments made by a lot of her BG3 compatriots last year. BG3 narrator Amelia Tyler said that unauthorised AI use of her voice "is stealing not just my job but my identity." Raphael actor Andrew Wincott and Karlach actor Samantha Béart, meanwhile, expressed concern about contractual abuses of AI performance cloning.
In other words, the struggle is ongoing. "Use your beautiful, creative, human brains," English implores games companies. Sounds good to me.
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