Yes, well, propaganda works. Clearly, we have heard “AI dubbing is here” so often that people think this claim is true.

Hollywood is freaking out about Tilly Norwood, an AI-created “actor”. As usual, all we see is one figure, straight to camera, short sentences, no actual conversation, and – crucially – we don’t know how much human input is necessary to make Tilly resemble a young woman.

But all that aside, a statement struck me as outrageous. On Graham Lovelace’s really excellent GenAI blog: a US-American actor named Erik Passoja stated, uncontested: “AI can dub a Netflix series in 120 languages, sound like the original actor, move the lips to match.”

Firstly: No it can’t. There are many reasons for this. But if you disagree with me, show me those dubs before we talk more.

Secondly: Passoja clearly has no idea what dubbing is when he goes on to explain why AI cannot replace actors. He says:

(…) do you think an AI can act opposite Javier Bardem and respond to what he is actually doing? Not variations on anger levels one through five. (But) actual response to another human being in real time. It can’t. Because acting is listening. And real direction requires a performer who can take in what’s happening, process it through their lived experience, and respond with their entire nervous system to create something that didn’t exist before that moment.

Frankly, I wish I had said that. Because this is exactly what dubbing is. Listening, responding, feeling the response. Not “variations on anger levels one through five.” Bravo! You got it!

Now only one more step – or maybe a visit to a dubbing studio. I hear they do have them in LA as well – to understand what real dubbing is.

Passoja doesn’t feel threatened by Tilly or any other AI “actor” because she and they will never do the real thing. And he doesn’t need to feel threatened because the tide is turning against Tilly and her ilk. According to recent reports, using AI to replace an actor is now against the law in California. Leaving aside the practicalities of geoblocking AI “actors” from one US state, it’s unfortunately NOT illegal for AI voice “actors” to replace the human ones, in California, or anywhere else.

The 2023 SAG-AFTRA contract, celebrated for its protections against AI,  states that actors have to give consent when their likeness is to be “digitally altered”. But there are several exceptions to this, and one of them is “adjusting lip and/other facial or body movement and/or the voice of the performer to a foreign language, …” Let me translate: our colleagues from SAG-AFTRA threw us under the bus. And let me paraphrase – if some localization company changes Meryl Streep’s face or the rest of her body in order to produce a lip-sync dub with the help of CGI/deepfake technology, they don’t even have to ask her. I have no idea how SAG members could have EVER agreed to this, unless it’s because they don’t know how dubbing, how translation, how voice acting works. Which they SHOULD, even if only to preserve their own work.

Now, if anyone has Meryl’s phone number, I’d be very grateful …