SENATOR MARONEY RELEASES STATEMENT AFTER NEW YORK TIMES REPORT ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY ‘STEALING’ ACTORS’ VOICES

Today, State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) released a statement following reporting from The New York Times that a firm specializing in artificial intelligence utilized voice acting samples recorded by two voice actors to create AI-generated versions of their voices, the technology in question then sold to other customers to make content, profiting off the actors’ voices without informing them or paying them:

“This is yet another example of the ‘Wild West’ of AI technology leading to unintended and negative consequences. The article posits that the company in question, the firm Lovo, paid less than $1,500 to voice actors for sound clips, then used AI-generated versions of those actors’ voices to support a fundraising pitch earning them more than $7 million. This is exploitative and wrong, the exact kind of malfeasance that occurs when there are no protections in place for the use of AI. While Senate Bill 2 didn’t become law this year in Connecticut, stories like these only reaffirm our need to pass legislation that approaches this technology with seriousness and thoroughness to protect against exploitation.”