Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Film and TV, Hollywood, Technology, The Simpsons, US News
The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria has revealed one ‘sad’ reason he could be replaced.
The 60-year-old, who is well known for bringing some of the key Simpsons characters to life, like Chief Wiggum and Moe Szyslak, has spoken out about the latest threat to the entertainment industry and how it could wipe out careers like his.
Azaria feels so passionately about the subject, he wrote an interesting op-ed in The New York Times about it, where he talked about the potential lost art of voice acting if technology continues to accelerate.
Advert
Of course, he's talking about artificial intelligence.
Writing in the NY Times, he commented that it makes him 'sad' to think AI cold recreate the sounds of the more than 100 voices he's created for the show in almost four decades.
"Not to mention, it seems just plain wrong to steal my likeness or sound — or anyone else’s," he added.
"In my case, A.I. could have access to 36 years of Moe, the permanently disgruntled bartender."
He went on to discuss his affinity with the character, saying he's laughed along 'as Moe' in 'dozens of ways' and 'sighed as Moe 100 times'.
"In terms of training AI, that's a lot to work with."
However, he stressed a voice transcends that of 'just a sound' and said he's comforted by the fact AI would always be missing 'the humanness' behind the characters, even if the tech could reasonably mimic his voice.
Azaria continued: "There’s so much of who I am that goes into creating a voice. How can the computer conjure all that?"
He explained how he first witnessed voice actor veterans in action - Dan Castellaneta, who plays the head of The Simpsons family, Homer, and Harry Shearer, who plays Mr Burns - he was 'almost embarrassed by how silly they looked' giving a performance to 'no one' but a microphone.
"It took me a while to get up the courage to do that, too," he remarked.
Azaria, who has also worked on animated shows like Family Guy and Futurama, says the voice actors will embody the actions of their characters with their physical bodies, like if they're running, crying or are throwing a punch, and might even use a prop to 'get into the reality of the scene'.
For now, he says AI is only possible of doing the 'neck-up version' in voice acting, that is just the sounds, adding: "The body and soul part will be harder."
The four Primetime Emmy Awards winner continued: "If AI tries to recreate one of my voices, what will the lack of humanness sound like? How big will the difference be?
"I honestly don’t know, but I think it will be enough, at least in the near term, that we’ll notice something is off, in the same way that we notice something’s amiss in a subpar film or TV show."
Despite this, the actor said he's still 'a little worried', and fearful that in 'our distracted era, it’s possible that people might not catch on to the difference'.
"This is my job. This is what I love to do, and I don’t want to have to stop doing it," he concluded.
"The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that the technology for making faces seem fully human is five years away. I fear that the voice equivalent is also coming."
He made the case that if AI were to fully take over and do the job as it should be done, it would have to understand emotion and ultimately 'be alive', which thankfully AI is nowhere near achieving... Yet.
