BBC issues statement on "highly sensitive" use of AI voiceover
The BBC said the technology will be used to represent the voice of a person who is nearing the end of their life.
The BBC has explained its decision to use AI instead of an actress in an upcoming documentary, revealing that the technology has been used to represent the voice of a person who is "nearing the end of life".
It comes after Sara Poyzer, a stage and screen star who is best known for performing in Mamma Mia! in the UK, shared online that she had been told her services were no longer required for voiceover work because AI was being used instead.
Poyzer posted a screenshot of an email, which read: "Sorry for the delay – we have had the approval from the BBC to use the AI-generated voice so we won't need Sara anymore."
She described the email as "sobering" in her post, which soon went viral and sparked an online debate about voice actors losing out to the technology.
Responding to criticism of the decision, the BBC said it was aware of "discussion in the last 24 hours regarding our use of AI in relation to voiceover work", adding there was "some important context to this".
The statement read: "We are making a highly sensitive documentary which features a contributor who is nearing the end of life and is now unable to speak."
The statement added that the BBC has been working closely with this person's family on how to represent their voice "when words they have written are read out" at the end of the film.
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"In these very particular circumstances and with the family's wishes in mind we have agreed to use AI for a brief section to recreate a voice which can now no longer be heard."
The statement added that the use of the technology would be "clearly labelled within the film".
The news comes at a time of great uncertainty in the TV and film industry about the use of AI.
Earlier this month, the BBC announced that it will experiment with generative AI for the promotion of Doctor Who.
David Housden, Head of Media Inventory at the BBC, said: "Generative AI offers a great opportunity to speed up making the extra assets to get more experiments live for more content that we are trying to promote.
"We’re going to take it one step a time, starting simple and learning as we go. We have chosen to start with Doctor Who, as it is a joint content priority for both BBC Public Service UK and BBC Studios marketing teams.
"There’s a rich variety of content in the Whoniverse collection on iPlayer to test and learn with, and Doctor Who thematically lends itself to AI, which is a bonus."
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