The voice actress behind Persona 5 character Futaba has deleted her Twitter account. The reason: An AI video that used her voice.
AI is in the process of revolutionizing many areas. Not only does this allow for fairly easy creation of artwork, but it’s also great for putting words in people’s mouths that they would never say. After all, millions have seen Donald Trump, Biden and Obama play Minecraft together or create an “anime waifu tier list”.
But not everyone feels it is appropriate when their voices are misused for such jokes. Voice actress Erica Lindbeck has now withdrawn from many social media – because her voice was used.
How do you know Erica Lindbeck? Most of you should know Erica Lindbeck from video games or anime. One of her most famous roles is Futaba Sakura from Persona 5. Others may know her from the YouTube series Helluva Boss where she voices Loona. But she can also be heard in the English synchros of the anime Sword Art Online, Kakegurui Twin or Your Lie in April.
What happened? A few days ago the YouTuber “themusicalcreeper7584” uploaded a video. This is the song “Welcome to the Internet” by Bo Burnhams (link to YouTube), but sung with the voice of Futaba, i.e. Erica Lindbeck.
Lindbeck then stated that she did not agree with such videos and asked the creator to take the video offline again. He quickly complied with the request.
Why doesn’t Lindbeck want such videos? According to Lindbeck’s (now-deleted) tweets, she views such videos using her voice as “abusive.”
In addition, such AI-generated voices can also cause problems, since you can simply put words into people’s mouths that they never spoke. Just imagine someone making a video in which Erica Lindbeck claims that she “doesn’t like Persona at all” or “thinks Helluva Boss is stupid”. Even recordings in which she simply uses swear words – like in the song “Welcome to the Internet” – are uncomfortable.
In a tweet she said:
It’s not about *this* video or *this* creator per se. I had content creators who made an AI video of my character belittling the show he’s in. Words are put in my mouth that could very easily be mistaken for my own.
As an artist, it’s so scary. I absolutely believe that these people create these things for fun and are not fully aware of the negative consequences that such content can have on the people whose voices they use.
This is how “the internet” reacted: As some – unfortunately rightly – have already suspected, part of the online community reacted with little understanding. Many then uploaded the video again and gave it titles like “You can’t get me to delete that”. Others have accused Lindbeck of launching a “hate campaign” against the original video creator, while still others say she “shouldn’t do that.”
On the other hand, there was a lot of encouragement from other voice actors, especially from the Persona cosmos. Erika Harlacher-Stone (voice of Ann Takamaki) said:
Awesome and sweet and warm, Erica Lindbeck has been through hell for the past few years. How can you AI guys bully her on social media just because she told you not to steal her voice without her consent??? You are terrible and I hope you are having a bad day.
Robbie Daymond (voice of Goro Akechi) also commented on the incident:
Because of Erica Lindbeck. What the HELL is wrong with you people? Have social media and the internet completely annihilated their sense of decency? Your brain turned to mush? Bombed away the empathy, detached her from reality and turned her malignant narcissism to 11? This makes me damn angry.
Erica Lindbeck has since deleted her Twitter account as a result of the incidents.
This is just one of the instances where AI and its use has caused problems – and it certainly won’t be the last.