ANOTHER Ai post, seriously? Well, this is important, and we need to understand the concept. So how do we avoid Ai voiceover? Let’s dig in. Imagine for a second you have an allergy to nuts, and you buy a chocolate brownie, and you say to the seller very simply, “Does this contain nuts?” and they respond with “NO”. We trust them, right? Well, what happens if it has nuts in it anyway? Not only have you been deceived, but you now pay the consequences.
Here at The Voice Actor College, the staff, coaches, students, reps, annnd just about anyone you can think of have a vigorous passion for our industry and are fighting extremely hard to make sure our industry does not fall into the hands of Ai. So, in this article, I am going to take you on a journey using our homepage graphic (above) as a means of demonstration and show how Ai (much like our miss-sold nut brownie) has a bigger impact than we think.
Creativity is a Process – Voice Acting is Art Too!
So this image was drawn by Anis Sasongko from Namanya Studios. When our site was first put together, the internet was not as badly flooded with Ai content as it is today. Stock images were easy enough to buy, and the owner rightly gets a kickback from wherever the image was sold. More on stock images in the next paragraph. However, today you have to be super careful, and I know for us, people (even now) often ask for the history of our homepage art – a history I am happy to share (In this post, in fact).
Anis starts with a simple outline of the image, which she checks with the customer making the order. To me, this is like setting my levels and sample rate before I walk into my vocal booth. I want to make sure everything is set up before expressing my craft and delivering a service for my customer. This helps reduce errors, and it helps build an immersive connection. With Ai, truthfully, you have no idea what you are getting.
Adaptability – Art, Voice Acting and Ai
Anis then shares a more detAiled outline with us, along with the first color concept. For me, I think of this like doing my first couple of lines. Having read this a couple of times to myself already, it feels like I am getting familiar with the product, ready to add the meat to the bones for the customer.
With stock images, you just don’t have this process. Worse yet, once upon a time they were someone else’s work; these days there is a massive danger of someone producing stock with Ai and then marking it off as their work. This is deceptive at best and outright dangerous at worst. The person eating the brownie with nuts in it now goes to the hospital because they were mis-sold. In the same way, the innocent customer looking for a great image was tricked into something they ethically don’t support.
Ai Ethics and How To Respond and Avoid Ai Voiceover
In the world of art, there is little to no room for Ai. Am I saying all Ai data centers should be closed down and we should walk away before the Terminator comes back in time to take us out? No! Absolutely not. Ai has a use! It can be very informative; it Aids many people with tasks, improving their efficiency and work-life balance. It certainly allows us to seek answers quicker than it once did. There are, of course, positives! This should not detract from the goal of how to avoid Ai in voiceover and art.
So why then can it not be adapted to service the art of our industry? Well, take this paragraph’s image. This is our second colour draft. To me, I imagine this like I have done my first full read-through of an audition. It’s not ready to send yet, but everything is in front of us. Ai voice-over and Ai art fall to the same issue… It just lacks heart! But if I were reading this, I would want something factual to back up an otherwise emotional stance on the topic, so take this instead. You can tell an Ai to deliver a scene; it has basic, directable results. But it does not feel or respond like us. It can’t. It has no emotions! Everything it does is an imitation, and that shows! Ever drank a Coke Zero and a regular Coke next to each other? Try chucking in a Diet Coke too. They have very different tastes, and having an option is good, but the fake sugars are still not sugars. It’s an imitation. You can’t beat the real thing – but you will always have preferences. Put me and an Ai voice in a session next to each other, and I guarantee you I can produce more feeling than an Ai. I guarantee you I am more versatile. I guarantee you I am easier to direct.
Can an Ai do my Job?
So now our image has layers. Between our dude at the back and our lady at the front, we have the beginnings of fire being formed by our artist. Me in the booth at this point has done my second take, offering the director two separate offerings from the same brief and text. This shows skill, versatility, and adaptability.
When we look at the Ai images out there, punching in a quick prompt might give you a simple image that tells it how it is. In voiceover, we have all heard that painful monotone delivery when scrolling, or that awkwardly non-human interaction where the end producer spent an extra $10 to try to emulate some emotion. But here is the thing… It all ends in ruin. The image gets a third arm, and the VO goes in a weird direction, and you have to pull it all back. Then, of a sudden, we realize our budget and laziness have resulted in settling for a lesser quality.
This next line will be hard to read. Sometimes people will be happy with the trash they have produced; worse yet, sometimes it can look and sound convincing. You can agree with that or not, but let me try to unpack this more before I give you the resolution. For our website, we had an Ai specialist go through every slice of media to ensure we don’t host any definitively Ai products. Why? Because we work in the creative space, and we want to encourage a creative ecosystem where others are not being replaced by Ai too. But the technology is getting better, and though it will never be the real thing, the copies are getting painfully believable. So, we all have to do our part! Avoid Ai voiceover as much as you can; don’t feed it!
So Why Fight Ai and Are we Being Replaced? Can We Avoid Ai Voiceover?
When Anis sent this draft to us, she asked one question: “Do you have any revisions?” We had one tiny revision, which was to give our guy pupils. That, in turn, gives you the image at the top of this thread. In voiceover, I have now levelled my audio, removed the lip smacks, and dealt with any unwanted elements from my audio file before sending it off to the client or agent. Maybe they will ask for a third take, maybe they will send another line, maybe they will ask me to change something – who knows! The important thing is they can simply ask.
Doing this with Ai often messes with the entire product, which just sucks the integrity out of the product and leaves it weak and unreliable. Ultimately, we will always have people who want to pay for a quality human service and someone who want to have something fast and easy. Our argument in our fight against Ai should be to justify why we are worth more and are the better option, because the truth is, we are! That will never change. For whatever benefits Ai has or will develop more into having, it will never be human, and art is an expression of humanity that connects us on an emotional level for the betterment of our race. I hope this blog on how to avoid Ai voiceover and art was helpful – thanks for reading.
How To Avoid Ai Voiceover And Art written by Alan Shires – Images drawn by Namanyastudios