Hugh Bonneville among stars backing campaign against AI voice cloning
Actors including Hugh Bonneville, Nicola Coughlan and Matt Lucas have backed a campaign calling for stronger protection against AI voice cloning. Save Our Voices Now argues that people should have legal ownership of their voices, saying unauthorised replicas threaten performers’ rights and can enable fraud.
About 80 people have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, alongside a Gov.uk petition seeking statutory voice rights for everyone in Britain. The campaign says 28% of UK adults have been targeted by voice-cloning scams, while citing Denmark’s planned reforms allowing citizens to seek removal of unauthorised AI content and compensation.
- Celebrities urge legal ownership of people’s voices.
- Campaign warns AI cloning threatens artists and enables scams.
- Denmark is pursuing similar protections.
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AI voice cloning uses software to create a convincing imitation of someone’s speech from recordings of their voice. It can be used in entertainment, such as dubbing or synthetic narration, but also to make material that appears to have been spoken by a person who did not agree to it.
Performers and other public figures are concerned that replicas could be used without payment or permission, potentially affecting their work and reputation. The same technology can also be used in scams, for example when criminals imitate a relative or colleague to ask for money or information.
Britain does not currently have a single, specific legal right giving people ownership of their voice. Campaigners are therefore seeking new rules that would let individuals challenge unauthorised voice copies and seek remedies when they are used.
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