Microsoft announced a partnership between Xbox and Inworld AI to create AI-driven development processes, and voice actors aren’t happy about it. Starfield’s Same Coe voice actor Elias Toufexis and Star Wars Jedi Survivor’s Shelby Young spoke out on Twitter about the negative effects this move could have on the acting industry (thanks, GamesRadar).
“I’ve said it for years now: If you want to start a voice-acting career, don’t bother,” Toufexis said.
“All those jobs of nameless background NPCs that gave us all our start in the industry …they’re all going away. I’m already bitter.”
I’ve said it for years now. If you want to start a voice-acting career, don’t bother.
All those jobs of nameless background NPCs that gave us all our start in the industry …they’re all going away.
I’m already bitter. https://t.co/nntANdSV61
— ᴇʟɪᴀꜱ ᴛᴏᴜꜰᴇxɪꜱ 🖖 (@EliasToufexis) November 7, 2023
“Recording NPC’s is how many voice actors cut their teeth in this industry,” Young said on Twitter. “This will make it even harder for new talent to break into video games (which tbh can already be pretty difficult to begin with). I’m worried for game devs and writers as well.”
Here’s what the Xbox Inworld partnership entails, for now:
- An AI design copilot that assists and empowers game designers to explore more creative ideas, turning prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and more.
- An AI character runtime engine that can be integrated into the game client, enabling entirely new narratives with dynamically-generated stories, quests, and dialogue for players to experience.
While the description makes no mention of voice acting, that kind of spontaneous dialogue probably won’t include human voices unless the developers record dozens of lines and feed them into the procedural generation tool. Maybe that’ll happen, but since most studios want to use AI to reduce costs, it seems unlikely.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
