'Don't steal our voices': dubbing artists confront AI threat

Mexican male voice actor Armando Guerrero speaks during a dubbing session for a television series, inside the recording studio in Mexico City. — Photography ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP

Voice actors around the globe are mobilizing against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate and clone human voices that they fear poses a threat to their livelihoods.

"We're fighting a very big monster," said Mario Filio, a Mexican artist who has done voiceovers for Hollywood star Will Smith, the Obi-Wan Kenobi character in Star Wars and the party-loving lemur King Julien in the animated movie "Madagascar."