Victoria Atkin, the well-known voice actress for Evie Fry from Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, claimed that Ubisoft stole her voice with the help of AI. Victoria is an active participant in the ongoing strikes in Hollywood over the introduction of generative artificial intelligence technologies to replace human labor and wage problems.
The actress wrote in Twitter, where she told her subscribers that her voice was allegedly stolen from her. And while her tweet isn’t entirely clear in context, it likely says that for Evie Fry’s reappearance in the game, Ubisoft intends to use AI to imitate Victoria’s voice rather than hire her to record.
Every time someone plays Evie Fry, Ubisoft makes money… I’ve never received a single cent from gaming royalties on any of the games I’ve been involved in making, yet video games make more money than movies… And today I’m doing what Evie Fry would have done… expressing solidarity!
Victoria supplemented her protest with a photo in which she explains that Ubisoft did not pay her any deductions every time she voiced the role of Evie Fry, and the company made money from it. She demanded residual payments to the voice actors throughout the years the game was on sale, rather than a lump sum payment.
At the same time, the desire of studios to use the possibilities of AI is increasingly causing concern among those involved in creative work, whether they are writers, voice actors or artists. Many of them fear that, without a clear legal framework, AI technologies will allow their work to be copied and reproduced, while depriving them of a sustainable livelihood.
What’s more, the AI trend that has become widespread in Hollywood has led to two months of protests in the United States. It is possible that the games industry will soon be on the verge of similar strikes from those who are underpaid or not given due attention in various areas of game development.
There have been cases in the past where the gaming industry allegedly mistreated its employees working in small creative positions. Not long ago, EA received criticism for the fact that in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, translators were not individually noted, which caused concerns among translation specialists. In addition, Genshin Impact’s voice actors have not been paid their salaries for several months.
