'Kalki 2898 AD' Kalki Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment In 2023, when the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes shut down Hollywood for four months, seeking protection from, among other things, artificial intelligence (AI), many in India wondered why nothing of the sort was happening there. One of the concerns of the movement was how big studios were going to use AI to replicate likenesses of artists in ways that could be exploitative. The strike ended in a three-year agreement that guaranteed fair pay and included provisions that required performers to approve how their voices were used.
Nothing of the sort has happened in India since. But there's a small, niche section of the entertainment industry where the effects of AI are being intensely felt: the dubbing and voiceover sector. Gigs have already started to disappear. As for the nature of work, these are strange times in the Indian industry. If you are a dubbing artist, you may find out that your voice has been used in a film you've never worked on. Related Stories Movies Willem Dafoe on Playing a Billionaire in 'The Birthday Party' and Not Being Afraid to Get Naked Movies 'Fantasy' Director Kukla on Giving the "Forgotten" a Voice, the Female Body as a "Political Battleground" Why the voice sector? Perhaps because some of the advancements in generative AI - like the text-to-speech model or voice cloning - have brought into focus aspects like copyright, compensation and consent in an informal industry of about 20,000 freelancers. The Association of Voice Artists of India (AVA) is more active than ever, issuing circulars and organizing forums for artists in their quest to spread awareness about how to survive and demand fair wages in an environment of uncertainty.AI isn't so evolved yet to replace traditional dubbing altogether - it often can't do emotions convincingly. What it can do is plainer narration, devoid of drama and nuance - perfectly functional for infomercials and corporate audiovisuals, user manuals and even TV promos. Many dubbing artists moonlight in these areas to supplement income - and this sub-sector of the business has taken a major hit. Text-to-speech has cut down costs (for the client) but eliminated the voice artist completely. "If earlier a voice actor was doing around 15-20 projects a month, now it has come down to maybe six or seven," says Amarinder Singh Sodhi, the General Secretary of AVA - and also the Hindi voice of Hawkeye (Avengers Assemble) and Blade (Deadpool & Wolverine). "And he or she is probably 40 or 50-plus," he adds. "It's not easy to change your profession overnight at that age."In 2023, when the SAG-AFTRA strikes were on, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote a passionate, clarion call of an op-ed demanding fair wages from "tech giants, entertainment giants and every other profit-hungry giant" for using people as resources to train AI. "What's behind the curtain of AI? The cost of the human labour it took to produce the training data," he wrote. "'Generative AI' cannot generate anything at all without first being trained on massive troves of data it then recombines. Who produces that training data? People do."Sodhi and his colleagues are fighting the same fight. Before taking up a project, they want to know what they are getting into, so they aren't exploited. Tech firms - normally U.S.-based - often approach voice artists to lend their voice to a project in vague terms, without specifying how, where and in what form their voice is going to be used. The lack of laws for AI use has meant that voice artists, particularly the new and less experienced, remain vulnerable to such offers. So, the AVA has taken it upon itself to educate. "If at all you're going ahead with it, you must understand that your voice is your intellectual property. And it could be misused. And the usage of the voice could be to that extent where your future prospects as a voice artist can be jeopardized," says Sodhi."Earlier, we used to go to the studio, where we were handed over a particular script, and we used to record and then go back home, without ever asking questions. But now the scenario has changed," he adds. "Our basic rule is that before even going for an audition, ask questions - ask them what exactly you are taking this audition for because random scripts are going to be a complete no-no from here on." Aditya Mathur, the channel voice of Nickelodeon, echoes Sodhi. "I can voice in English and then the same can be captured and utilized in numerous languages that AI can do, which basically means I am supposed to be paid for those multiple languages," he says. It's not just about compensation - it's about consent too. "Tomorrow if someone sends me a clip of a hate speech with my voice in it, I will be horrified,