Actors launch campaign against AI voice cloning

A group of approximately 80 actors, including Hugh Bonneville, Nicola Coughlan, and Matt Lucas, has launched a campaign titled ‘Save Our Voices Now’ to protest against artificial intelligence voice cloning. The campaign seeks to prevent technology from being used to replicate a person's voice to say anything without their consent.

Participants have signed an open letter and launched a government petition to establish voice ownership as a statutory right in Britain. Actress Siobhan McSweeney expressed concern that legislation and artists' rights are not evolving as quickly as AI technology, describing the situation as an ‘existential problem’ that requires legislative control.

The campaign also highlights the security risks of the technology, noting that 28% of UK adults report being targeted by voice-cloning scams. Founder Peter Caulfield warned that an AI system can clone and reinterpret a voice in just three seconds.