Oh yeah, I can see where this is going…

Vanity Fair reports that in 2022, Lucasfilm and Skywalker Sound hired a Ukrainian startup called Respeech to recreate Darth Vader’s voice for its upcoming mini-series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” The recently departed James Earl Jones was then alive but 91 and his voice was waeker and not as resonant as in his “THIS is CNN!” days. Using AI, Respeech used archived “Star Wars” sound tracks footage to recreate Jones’ iconic Darth Vader’s tones from the original 1980s trilogy. Jones was satsified with the fake version of him, and signed off on using his archival voice recordings for future (lousy) “Star Wars” spin-offs. When “Obi-Wan Kenobi” premiered, nobody guessed that Darth Vader’s voice was AI generated.

But now what? How carefully drawn and limited was Jones’ contract? And does it matter? Surely in a short period of time AI will be able to imitate any famous voice, or any unfamous one. For a long time, radio ads using celebrity impressionists have had to include a disclosuer statement, but is one required if the voice is AI generated and no name is attached, meaning that the ad hasn’t said who is speaking. Vocak whiz Paul Fries used to do a perfect imitation of Orson Welles that was used in movies and albums, with no disclosure.

Of course, this techology will put human voice performers out of work: who needs Ving Rhames to say, “We have THE MEATS!” if a bot can do it?

The ethical practice would be for any studio, ad agency or production using an AI clone of a famous voice to reveal that up front, whether they have the rights to the voice, as in Jones’ case, or not. There shouldn’t have to be a law or regulation requiring that either; it’s the right thing to do.

But as we all know, there are no ethics in show business, advertising, and product marketing. Just wait until AI can duplicate famous singers perfectly. Oh, just let your imagination run free regarding how this technology can be abused.

Oh yeah. This is going to end well….