The Patent Professor John Rizvi talks AI replications of famous voices

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
John Risby, the patent professor, John, how we're going to say,
I know nothing about the Epstein file, So well.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Look, if you do, you better release them. Okay, quick
hold out on us, sir. All right, Well let's talk
about it, because this AI situation is kind of crazy
and it's getting out of control, and as a patent professor,
I would imagine this is going to be all kinds
of illegal pushbacks. Matthew McConaughey, Michael Kaine, the actors now
If teamed up with his AI audio company it's called

(00:26):
eleven Labs, to produce virtual replications of their famous voices.
I mean, all right, all right, all right, so now
you can he doesn't have to go do all the work.
He can just hire a company in AI and still
make money and people can still get his voice. So
but with AI, I mean you can do this pretty
much to anybody and everybody. It's a it's a beast

(00:47):
that's come out of the box, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
And it's now allowing celebrities to really leverage their voice,
their likeness.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Twenty four to seven.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean there's you know, there's a limit to the
human voice. How long somebody can actually perform, but when
it's a bot, it literally is limitless. It could be
twenty four to seven, three sixty five days a year,
and there's a lot of concern as to what that's
going to do to the market for voice talent because

(01:20):
you know, of course celebrities there might always be a
market for them, but what about all of the other
voice actors and actresses out there that are doing voiceovers
and telephone on hold messages and the list goes on
and on, and all of that is potential work that's.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Now at risk one hundred percent. I mean, I do
sidework in the voiceover world as well, and you know,
I've seen it over the years. You know, slow down
because number one, you know people are doing it for
a lot less money these days, and number two, the
AI situation, it's like we can create our own voice.

(02:00):
His thanks, but we're saving some money. Enjoyed working with you,
Bye bye. So where does this take people like Morgan Freeman,
Matthew mcconnie, Michael Kane. Because the Birmingham Airport I don't
think we hired Morgan Freeman to do the voiceovers for
the airport announcements, but there's a guy sounds exactly like him.
I don't know if that's changed, but you know, Morgan

(02:21):
Freeman's voice is another one that's replicated quite often and
it stands out every time you hear it. So what
is the recourse for people who are kind of getting
ripped off? Well, yeah, we used Ai, but we didn't
use his voice. It's a voiceover actor that is an impersonator.
So do people get away with it?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
So the current law does cover it.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
There's a right of publicity that celebrities have to their likeness.
The problem is the burden is on them to first
of all find the usage. I mean, because it's no
longer large companies that are infringing. You know, what do
you do when there's thousands and thousands of online internet

(03:02):
users that are doing this? What do you do when
the defendants might be you know, some high school kid
in their mother's basement that really can't there's no recourse
for damages, so you really will not be able to
find lawyers that can take this case on contingency.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
So do these celebrities just.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
End up paying out of pocket for the legal fees
and then get a judgment that they can't collect? So
that's one issue. When it's done by a large company,
there's some recourse. There were two voice actors, Paul Lairman
and Lennia Sage, who recently brought a lawsuit against AI
startup Logo for use of their voice.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
But that's what celebrities they're resorting to.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
So perhaps what Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine what they're
doing is trying to get in.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Front of that.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Perhaps they're thinking, you know what, our voice is going
to be stolen and used without our permission, and then
we'll be in the the unfortunate position of having to
bring lawsuits, go through years of litigation with an uncertain outcome,
an uncertain recovery. Or can we get ahead of it
and just license our voice from the get go and

(04:17):
start making money from it upfront. The Probably there's a
lot of fan backlash against that because it looks like
the celebrities that you know, there's the feeling.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
That they've sold their soul to AI.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Just the same kind of backlash against AI actress at
Tilly Norwood, who's I understand it is actually starting to
get deals already and then completely robotic AI Actress and
that it's making real talent.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, I've heard about that too. But let me ask you,
this is Matthew mcconnie and Michael Kaine, those others too,
that are teaming up with companies like you know this
AI eleven Labs company to produce these virtual replications. When
you partner with a company like this that handles your voice,
do they do all the dirty work when it comes
to legal battles or is it still on the actual actors.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
So that's the hope is that they would if there
is other companies. They have a vested interest because they're
seeing for Matthew McConaughey and Michael Kaine's voice, among others,
so they will not like it if somebody else does
it for free. So that's one benefit is that they
will do the the bring the lawsuits. But really I
think it's beyond that is that they are going to

(05:30):
be paid regardless, so they have an upfront deal. So
and Matthew mcconnie's actually an investor in eleven Labs, so
you may be benefiting on both ends.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Problem let me tell you, Matthew mcconnie, Michael Kaine, these
guys that are teaming up with these folks have certainly
figured it out, and they will be still making money
and have eleven lambs go do their dirty work for me.
I kind of like this, but yeah, what a juggernaut
of a beast. This is this whole AI infiltration to
everything in our world. Well, John Risby, Shape of the
Patent Professor