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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Roisin O'Connor

Royal Mail confirms AI was used in Christmas ad

Royal Mail Paul Vaughan ElevenLabs
  • Lucy Vaughan, daughter of the late TV narrator Paul Vaughan, has accused Royal Mail of using an AI-generated replica of her father's voice in its Christmas advertisement.
  • Royal Mail confirmed the advert's voiceover was created using AI, but said external partners advised that it was generated via prompts rather than mimicking a specific individual.
  • Audio technology firm ElevenLabs denied creating a direct clone of Vaughan, but declined to comment on whether its AI model had been trained on his archived work.
  • Lucy Vaughan described the use of her father's voice as “outrageous”, saying he would have strongly opposed AI replacing human voiceover artists.
  • ElevenLabs has subsequently added Paul Vaughan to its No Go Voices list to prevent direct cloning, following growing pressure from performers for legal protections against generative AI.

IN FULL

Royal Mail admits using AI voiceover after daughter of late BBC narrator ‘hears dead father’s voice’ in Christmas advert

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