GTA V Michael Voice Actor is Not Happy With Web3 Company WAME

Artificial intelligence (AI) is making waves in gaming. Several games are coming up with tools for users to make content creation easier. A company used AI to recreate the audio of a voice actor who contributed to Grand Theft Auto Five (GTA V). The actor has called out the company for doing the act without his consent.

Nothing Cool About That

Entertainment news website CBR (formerly Comic Book Resources) reported that Ned Luke, who voiced Michael in GTA V, posted his comment regarding the incident on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). He wrote that there is “absolutely nothing cool about ripping people off with some lame computer estimation of my voice.”

He also mentioned the uniform resource locator (URL) of a post by the Web3 company that has done the act, WAME, featuring his recreated voice. However, it appears like the AI company has deleted the post at the time of writing. One of WAME’s recent posts explained how this technology works.

“First and foremost, I extend my sincerest apologies. As a fan of GTA, my intention was to implement interactions with GTA game characters using AI, without any commercial motives,” WAME wrote in an apology. “I assure you that the app in question will be removed. Once again, I deeply regret any concern this may have caused and apologize sincerely.”

Ned Luke’s post garnered significant attention – people supported his concern. A voice actor behind a character from another of Rockstar Games’ project called Red Dead Redemption said that “the real Michael will never be replaced.” A user also argued that “creative people make remarkable things with AI, and the opposite is also true.” Ned clarified this by highlighting the incident and saying “not using my voice they don’t.”

AI is increasingly becoming a cloud on the horizon concerning deepfakes according to a recent study. Advertisements featuring deepfake videos impersonating the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, hoarded the social media platform Facebook according to The Guardian. The ads reportedly reached nearly 400K users while £12,929 ($16,339) were spent on the campaigns.

A fake footage of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also erupted claiming that a project involving Rishi Sunak earned massive sums that were “initially intended for ordinary citizens.” It falsely claimed that Elon Musk is launching an application associated with the stock market which the government will test.

In May 2023, an English language news channel reported about a deepfake image of an explosion outside the Pentagon building. The image caused a dip in the stock market while one media outlet from Asia featured it in its bulletin. It was then verified by social media sleuths like Bellingcat’s Nick Waters that it was indeed a fake image.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.