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Renowned author and actor Stephen Fry has come forward to raise concerns about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated voices, after an unsettling experience of hearing AI mimic his voice in a historical documentary.

During a talk at the CogX Festival in London this week, Fry heard a clip of an AI system flawlessly mimicking his voice to narrate the doccie.

The AI utilised real recordings of all seven volumes of the Harry Potter as narrated by Fry in order to create a convincing replica of his voice for the new narration, leaving the actor reeling at the convincing deepfake.

“I said not one word of that – it was a machine. Yes, it shocked me.”

Fry expressed his concern that the audience did not realise that the recording was not just a simple ‘mashup’ but rather a product of advanced AI that replicated his voice, modulating the words to fit the meaning of each sentence. According to the actor, the scary reality is that the realistic-seeming AI was done completely without his involvement, despite it being his ‘voice’.

“It could, therefore, have me read anything from a call to storm parliament to hard porn, all without my knowledge and without my permission. And this, what you just heard, was done without my knowledge.”

Upon discovering this unauthorised use of his voice, Fry immediately contacted his agents on both sides of the Atlantic, who were equally surprised.

“This is audio,” Fry warned his team, “It won’t be long until full deepfake videos are just as convincing.”

Fry also stressed the importance of addressing the potential misuse of AI-generated content in the film industry, amidst the ongoing writers strikes taking place in Hollywood, sharing some cautionary wise words about the future.

“We have to think about [AI] like the first automobile: impressive but not the finished article… Tech is not a noun, it is a verb, it is always moving.”

Well, if tech is indeed a verb, I’ll be ‘tech-ing’ all the recordings of my voice off the internet – it’s an AI Wild West out there.

As Fry so eloquently put it: “It’s a f***ing weird time to be alive.”

[source:deadline]