David Attenborough furious over ‘disturbing’ AI voice clone

Legendary biologist and presenter Sir David Attenborough has rallied against content creators using AI voice clones to imitate him.

The advent of AI has been equal parts wondrous and worrying. The technology is permeating every industry with content creators like MrBeast using it to generate YouTube video ideas or Haliey ‘Hawk Tuah’ Welch creating an artificial dating assistant.

There’s an undeniably sinister side to the potential of AI, however. It has been used to scam people online, cheat in art competitions, and even linked to the death of a teenager.

One of the earliest adoptions of the technology online was via the use of voice profiles or ‘clones’ to imitate celebrities. While in many cases this type of use is innocuous, Sir David Attenborough has spoken out against the use of his own voice in content he has no say over.

Content similar to the example above abounds on TikTok and YouTube and the bizarrely accurate replication of David Attenborrough’s voice is one of the more popular AI voice clones online. There are many websites that allow users to create text-to-speech recordings using AI voice clones and Attenborough was approached by the BBC for his thoughts on the unauthorized use of his.

“Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find these days my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish,” the documentarian protested.

Certain AI voice clones of Attenborough do a remarkable job at replicating not only his tone but also his cadence. While many people can still spot the difference, the technology is in its infancy and it’s perceivable that it could become indistinguishable from the real thing.

The use of AI in this particular capacity was one of the primary concerns of the SAG-AFTRA video game strikes. Voice Actors were concerned that they may be replaced with similar AI technologies that can closely imitate humans.