Hank Azaria, who has voiced over 100 different characters on The Simpsons, fears that artificial intelligence will steal the likeness of voice actors. Azaria penned an op-ed in The New York Times about the worries about artificial intelligence taking over voice acting and the art losing its humanity.
“There’s a human behind our favorite animated characters. But as AI comes to Hollywood, that could change,” writes Azaria.
Azaria has been an actor for a long time, voicing Simpsons characters for nearly four decades. In that time span, he was behind characters like Chief Wiggum, Snake Jailbird, Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel, Professor Frink, Superintendent Chalmers, Comic Book Guy, the Sea Captain, Duffman, and many more. Having so many different tones and paralinguistics of characters frequently in the show makes it easier for AI to train from.
AI could probably replicate voices exactly, but could it really steal a performance? Not tone, cadence, and modulation separately, but all combined, separates me, making a bad impression at home, from the actual voice actors of our time. AI is exactly what its name says it is – artificial. Which leaves Azaria and I both wondering how it could capture the “humanness” of it all.
“It can be as simple as running in place if your character’s running. If your character is crying, you work up real tears, real emotion. A lot of my characters have thrown punches or been punched in the face. If your character’s talking while he throws a punch, it’s hard to fake unless you actually throw a punch. Sometimes we’ll pick up a prop if it helps us get into the reality of the scene. I played a character who was cigar-chomping, so I stuck a highlighter in my mouth while I talked.”
If voice acting just consisted of talking a lot and reading lines, I would’ve been the greatest of all time as a certified D1 yapper. However, it’s a lot more than just the neck up, as said by Azaria.
Azaria also touched on how improvisation is hard to replicate because you’re following an unspoken rhythm. Additionally, he mentioned most of the voices he comes up with are based on people he knows and experiences he’s had. In the article, Azaria recalls the story of him coming up with the voice for Agador, the shoe-challenged butler. He said it came from his own grandmother.
I think we’ll still need someone who in his mind and heart and soul knows what needs to be done. AI can make the sound, but it will still need people to make the performance,” Azaria reflected. “Will the computer ever understand emotion on its own, what’s moving and what’s funny? Now we’re getting into science fiction – because for that, I think, the AI would have to be alive.”
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Source: Kiat Media
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