Whether we like it or not, AI is an increasingly widespread part of modern life. While only a few years ago, discussions on AI seemed to refer to a distant future in which a Skynet type super-intelligence would become aware of oneself, we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by chatbots, video generators and ‘Image of AI and a wholesale embrace of the big embrace of the big embrace of the big embrace of the wholesale embrace of the technology of media societies. Consequently, the writers and the actors were forced to strike the initial refusal of Hollywood to regulate the technology, and fortunately both The strikes ended with protections against well -established AI. But in one way or another, he always has the impression that we are ramping Garbage Future populated by films created by AI Filled with virtual actors based on stolen similarities of established stars.
Another result of this rapid rise in AI is that the actors of the Hollywood voice are now trapped between the danger and the possibility. Vocal leisure technology is good enough for us to have trouble saying whether a drake track in fact comes from the real Kendrick Lamar, or if the Hungarian accent of Adrien Brody in “The Brutalist” is his own speech where “Improved” dialogue produced by the Reheeneker program. The AI speech was also used more blatant, Morgan Neville admitting the use of an AI model of the voice of the late Anthony Bourdain for certain parts of his documentary “Roadrunner”. We have even seen whole standup specials made using an AI vocal model of the late actor George CARLIN – which simply provides more evidence than we will soon be surrounded by virtual media approximations that we once loved.
In this lamentable backdrop, the veteran actor of the voice “Simpsons” Hank Azaria has now tested the technology that could one day take his work, and fortunately, it did not go so well.
Does the voice have an inevitability?
At the end of 2024, we saw one of the oldest animated series of all time, “One Piece,” suffers a big shakedown that could very well come for “The Simpsons” then. Having run for 25 years, the anime is not as seasoned as his American counterpart, who is now 35 years old, but it is quite long to see the voice actor Kazuki Yao officially announce his retirement in December 2024 , citing health problems. Its official replacement, Subaru Kimura, was announced shortly after.
Who followed the actor of the voice of Milhouse Pamela Hayden announcing his retirement from “The Simpsons” after 35 years in November of the same year. The only saving grace here was that the two actors have been overhauled instead of replacing with AI vocal models. But again, the specter of such technology haunted the two announcements, especially since the youngest members of the “Simpsons” distribution are Hank Azaria and Yeordley Smith at 60, and the oldest, Harry Shearer , is 81. What is happening when they, too, retire? After all, at this stage, “the Simpsons” seem to be able to continue forever. The truth is that if it was such a thing to happen, AI would not only be a viable alternative to the redesign of the studio that produces the show, it would also be cheaper and faster. Perhaps even worse, technology could be good enough at that time to escape fans detection.
For the moment, however, it seems that the actant Voice AIA has a way to go before being able to replace these beloved performers. Azaria, who expresses hundreds of characters in the show, including Moe, Professor Frink and Chef Wiggum, recently stopped New York Times To get an idea of the proximity that he is really replaced by an AI vocal model, and this should be a relief for anyone even a little uncomfortable about such a perspective that his work is sure for The moment.
Hank Azaria is not convinced that he will be replaced on the Simpsons … For the moment
During his visit to the NYT, Hank Azaria recorded short monologues as various “Simpsons” characters and listened to the IA program attempt to recreate each voice. He was not impressed. The very first attempt, which saw the actor’s record lines like Moe and listen to a newly generated extract from the AI, prompted him to react with “it was far”. Indeed, although the model did a job decent enough to imitate the Moe of Azaria, he lacked what the actor called the “gravel” required to do it convincingly. “If we were trying to look like a robot,” he said, “it would be a fairly good version of what we were trying to do.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hz19KPCSE4
It should be noted that if Disney decide to use the modeling of the AI voice to replace the “Simpsons”, the technology would probably be fed hundreds of thousands of line readings, which would allow it to improve its performance to Something much closer than what Azaria and the Nyt have produced. However, it is at least pleasant to know that this particular experience was not so convincing.
In the end, Azaria rejected AI technology as incapable of reproducing “a humanity” which “implies the motivation of a character, certain emotions, the subtleties of physics, instead or otherwise, which s ‘Add to a human being. ” But he adopted a much more deadly vision in his final remarks, arguing that “people will listen and appreciate and look at what they like”.
“They will not care if the AI has generated it or that a human has generated it or a combination of the two. At the moment, which AI generates alone, like Moe the bartender or something else , will not cut it.
Lavably, I think Azaria is right. But he doesn’t need to be.
A future dominated by AI should not occur
During his video interview with The Times, Hank Azaria said he had not started to “think of AI seriously” in the past year, quoting like a personal turning point Scarlett Johansson is unleashed in a company for copying his “her” performances for their personal assistant AI. But the Voice Recreation was a problem even before this example of 2024. Before his death, the actor of the voice of Dark Vader, James Earl Jones, gave permission to reseach to use their AI technology to create New vocal performance using the actor’s records himself. As such, Disney now has the ability to recreate its legendary Dark Vader Tone-something that the company has done for the mini-series “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. As Reheeneker puts it on his official website“With automatic learning technology, we have managed to create a clone of the voice of James Earl Jones, allowing Dark Vador to resume his role as Lord of Sith in all his glory.”
All this raises the question of how the protections acquired by these most recent strikes are robust. Obviously, studios are massively investing in this technology, that contracts stipulate the resemblances and voices of the actors. About PrefectureIn 2024, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) concluded two agreements with AI companies which allowed the actors of the voice to concede to “replicas of digital voices” of themselves, which led to the controversy among the members of the union who were apparently blind by developments.
Meanwhile, Azaria wrote an opinion article in The New York Times To accompany his video, in which he wrote: “I am a little worried. This is my job. This is what I like to do, and I don’t want to have to stop doing it” Faces seem to be fully humans are five years old.
With all that is considered, another strike does not only seem to be a potential, but necessary option. Azaria could just be that some people do not care whether vocal performance comes from humans or AI in the future. But that should not be the way things happen if enough people grow back. As such, the best thing that the actors in the voice can do at this stage is to use their voice to continue to speak.
