The actor told an audience in London that AI was a “burning issue” for actors.

  • FaceDeer
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    239 months ago

    His voice wasn’t stolen, it’s still right where he left it.

    • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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      869 months ago

      Fair enough. It’s not theft, it’s something else.

      But that’s just semantics, though.

      The point is that his voice is being used without his permission, and that companies, profiteering people, and scammers will do so using his voice and the voices others. He likely wants some kind of law against this kind of stuff.

        • @idiomaddict@feddit.de
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          39 months ago

          It’s emotionally charging to hear your own voice saying things you did not. Dismissing a victim describing what happened because they’re emotional about how they were wronged doesn’t make sense to me.

          • @cloudy1999@sh.itjust.works
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            39 months ago

            This, and it’s not a human. All these analogies trying to liken a learning algorithm to a learning human are not correct. An LLM is not a human.

          • Armok: God of Blood
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            -279 months ago

            Our entire society would collapse if we couldn’t do things fast, reliably, and at scale.

              • Armok: God of Blood
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                -79 months ago

                Artists aren’t being scammed. They’re being replaced by automated systems. It’s the same thing that happened to weavers and glassblowers. The issue isn’t that their job is being automated. It’s that people replaced by automation aren’t compensated. Blame the game, not the players.

                  • Armok: God of Blood
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                    -49 months ago

                    In this specific case, it’s more like a bunch of glassblowers were being paid to make designs on behalf of a company. Then they went on strike, and the company decided it would be cheaper to replicate their designs with an automated system than to meet the workers’ demands.

            • BraveSirZaphod
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              9 months ago

              I don’t think it’s a particularly odious mental challenge to understand that we’re not upset about the general concept of doing things at scale, and that it depends on what the thing in question is.

              For instance, you’d probably not be terribly upset about me randomly approaching you on the street once - mildly annoyed at most. You’d probably be much more upset if I followed you around 24/7 every time you entered a public space and kept badgering you.

        • Echo Dot
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          39 months ago

          There was a difference between complete duplication and impersonation for the purposes of satire.

    • Th4tGuyII
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      359 months ago

      If you made a painting for me, and then I started making copies of it without your permission and selling them off, while I might not have stolen the physical painting, I have stolen your art.

      Just because they didn’t rip his larynx out of his throat, doesn’t mean you can’t steal someone’s voice.

      • ThenThreeMore
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        109 months ago

        We’re getting into samantics but it’s counterfeit not stolen.

        It would be more like if you made a painting for me, and I then used that to replicate your artistic style and used that to make new paintings without your permission and passed it off as your work.

      • @drekly@lemmy.world
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        -139 months ago

        Well, I just printed a picture of the Mona Lisa.

        Did I steal the Mona Lisa? Or did I just copy it? Reproduce it?

        • stopthatgirl7OP
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          319 months ago

          You’re also not causing da Vinci to potentially miss out on jobs by copying it. You’re also not taking away his ability to say no to something he doesn’t want to be associated with.

          • @drekly@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            That’s fine. I’m not arguing this is a bad thing, I’m just being pedantic about the word theft.

            Having your voice used to say things you didn’t say is a terrifying prospect. Combined with deep faking takes it one step further.

            But is it technically theft?

    • jimmydoreisalefty
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      9 months ago

      This is more of: his potential for labor in exchange for money is being taken from him, due to robots

      The fight goes back to: working class vs wealthy class (help from loyal dogs)


      Looks like contracts will have to include AI jargon moving forward, so people get paid.

      edit: word edit 2: AI contract jargon added

        • jimmydoreisalefty
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          59 months ago

          Meant it as people will have to include AI or whatever is next in their contracts, so as to make sure companies do not just use them without permission, for profit areas.

          • exscape
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            19 months ago

            But was it “stolen” by the book companies? I can’t access the full article, but I’m assuming some random person (who haven’t signed any contracts) trained the model on the books, which are widely available.

            • jimmydoreisalefty
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              19 months ago

              I think it may be similar to using parts of songs, royalties would need to be paid out.

              Unless, they show it is fair use or different enough to not be “copyright”?

              Well, in the end lawers will figure it out.

              • exscape
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                29 months ago

                Right, but in that case laws are needed, not contracts.
                If I were to download the Harry Potter books and use them to make a Stephen Fry AI voice, nothing in any contract would make that illegal, since I haven’t signed any.

                • jimmydoreisalefty
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                  19 months ago

                  Yeah, that would be under personel use.

                  Similar to when you buy a PC game and you add mods to it, maybe.

                  Buying devices and installing your own OS and apks…

        • FaceDeer
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          09 months ago

          No, the use of words matter when having a debate. “Theft” is an emotionally charged word that has a lot of implications that don’t actually map well to what’s going on here. It’s not a good word to be using for this.

          • Encrypt-Keeper
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            9 months ago

            Seems to map pretty well. I’ve looked up a handful of definitions of theft and looking at it from an emotionless perspective it seems to fit. To take something without permission or the right to. I don’t really see where the removal of a finite resource is required.

            Thats why I figured that comment was just a dad joke.

            • FaceDeer
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              09 months ago

              When you steal something the person you stole it from doesn’t have it any more. That’s why copyright violation is covered by an entirely different set of laws from theft.

              This isn’t even copying, really, since the end result is not the same as anything in the source material.

              Lots of people may want it to be illegal, may want to call it theft, but that won’t make it so when they take it to court.

              • Encrypt-Keeper
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                9 months ago

                “When you steal something the person you stole it from doesn’t have it any more.”

                Idk “identity theft” is a crime but you don’t actually remove the persons identity from them either. And also digital reproduction like in the case of piracy doesn’t remove a copy from the author but that is also illegal and is also considered theft. So I’m not really sure where you’re getting this idea that something isn’t both considered theft and a crime if it doesn’t remove a copy from the original owner, there are multiple examples to the contrary.

                • @Dkarma@lemmy.world
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                  09 months ago

                  The point is loss. You have to show you were damaged. In this case fry isn’t losing anything.

                  • @idiomaddict@feddit.de
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                    09 months ago

                    He’s losing work and the effectiveness of his strike. Either they want his voice and they’d pay for it if he wasn’t striking, in which case his literal voice is working against his figurative one against his will, or they just need a voice and there was no fucking reason to steal a real person’s.

                • FaceDeer
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                  09 months ago

                  And also digital reproduction like in the case of piracy doesn’t remove a copy from the author but that is also illegal and is also considered theft.

                  No, it is considered copyright violation. That’s a crime too (well, often a civil tort) but it is not theft. It’s a different crime.

                  If you want something to be illegal there needs to be an actual law making it illegal. There isn’t one in the case of AI training because it isn’t theft and it isn’t copyright violation. This is a new thing and new things are not illegal by default.

                  Calling it “theft” is simply incorrect, and meaningfully so since it’s an emotionally charged and prejudicial term.

                  • Encrypt-Keeper
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                    29 months ago

                    You skipped the identity theft part because I guess it kinda takes all the wind out of your argument lol.

                    Even then, “Theft” isn’t a single unique crime or law that’s distinct from copyright infringement, it’s an umbrella term. What you’re thinking of as the crime of “theft” is “larceny”, which actually does refer to taking physical property specifically. But Stephen Fry didn’t use the term Larceny here.

                    Copyright infringement when dealing with the theft of intellectual property is a type of theft. And since the rights to your voice and or performance is a thing you can own, it can easily be considered theft. It doesn’t need a new law, it’s just a new way to commit an old crime.

    • HeartyBeast
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      9 months ago

      What word or phrase would you have used in the headline ?

      • FaceDeer
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        49 months ago

        “Copied” or “mimicked” would be more accurate.

      • gregorum
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        9 months ago

        Copyright infringement, which, in this context, is still a seriously concerning crime.

        • @OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
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          29 months ago

          It’s not copyright infringement. You can’t copyright a style, which is basically what a voice amounts to.

          This is something new. It’s a way of taking something that we always thought of as belonging to a person, and using it without their permission.

          At the moment the closest thing is trademark infringement, assuming you could trademark your personal identity (which you can’t). The harms are basically the same, deliberately passing off something cheap or dodgy as if it was associated with a particular entity. Doesn’t matter if the entity is Stephen fry or Pepsi Max.

          • gregorum
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            9 months ago

            It is, as a matter of fact. When Fry recorded his voice for those audiobooks, they were copyrighted. Reproducing the contents of those works as they have is, arguably a violation of copyright.

            And when you compare Steven Frye to Pepsi Max, that’s a false equivalence, because you’re comparing a copyrighted material to a trademarked brand which are two different things.

            Still, to your point of theft, nobody is taking anything from anyone. They are using something without permission, and that still falls squarely as copyright infringement, not theft.

            • @SCB@lemmy.world
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              29 months ago

              Reproducing the contents of those works as they have is

              This did not occur.

                • @SCB@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  That’s not reproduction of content so isn’t a copyright violation. Not shouldn’t be. Literally right now is not.

                  The whole reason people are so up in arms about this is that we do not currently have laws or even standards that accurately police this kind of thing.