BBC presenter's likeness used in advert after firm tricked by AI-generated voice
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/28/bbc-presenters-likeness-used-in-advert-after-firm-tricked-by-ai-generated-voice
BBC presenters likeness used in advert after firm tricked by AI-generated voice
Exclusive: Liz Bonnins face used on insect repellant ads after faked message ostensibly granted permission
Sammy Gecsoyler
Sun 28 Apr 2024 05.39 EDT
There was something strange about her voice, they thought. It was familiar but, after a while, it started to go all over the place.
Science presenter Liz Bonnins accent, as regular BBC viewers know, is Irish. But this voice message, ostensibly granting permission to use her likeness in an ad campaign, seemed to place her on the other side of the world.
The message, it turns out, was a fake AI-generated to mimic Bonnins voice. Her management team got hold of it after they saw the presenters face on online ads for an insect repellant spray this week, something for which she did not sign up.
At the very beginning it does sound like me but then I sound a bit Australian and then its definitely an English woman by the end. Its all fragmented and theres no cadence to it, said Bonnin, best known for presenting Bang Goes the Theory and Our Changing Planet.
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