Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty update features a huge amount of new content, as well as new voice lines for a number of returning characters. However, according to a recent report from Bloomberg, one character's voice lines have been created by AI.
Have you had time to check out Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC yet? The massive update is considered by most players to be a return to form for CD Projekt RED (or CDPR), bringing the game a lot closer to what it should've been with its 1.0 release. It also includes a number of new voice lines across all localizations, which is no small feat. Especially since one of 1.0's voice talents was no longer able to record them himself.
The voice actor in question went by the name Miłogost Reczek. Doesn't sound familiar? Don't worry, if you have any Polish friends they should be able to fill you in. He was, after all, a pretty well-known actor and voice actor in Poland who helped bring hundreds of international shows, movies and video games to Polish audiences. Including Cyberpunk 2077, as it happens: He was the Polish voice for Viktor Vektor. In its 1.0 release, at least; he unfortunately passed away in late 2021.
Now, here's where it gets weird. What do you do when a voice actor who contributed to your game's original release isn't able to reprise his role for the game's updates? Do you hire a new actor with a similar voice to record the new voice lines? What about the old lines? Do you keep them in or do you have the new actor re-record them for consistency's sake?
Cyberpunk 2077: Now With Real AI Voice Technology
According to a recent report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, none of those options sounded quite right to CD Projekt Red's localization team, and they opted for an appropriately cyberpunk solution instead: They hired a voice actor to record the new lines in his own voice and then modified the recordings with AI to make them sound like the late Reczek's voice. Genius.
“This way we could keep his performance in the game and pay tribute to his wonderful performance as Viktor Vektor,” CDPR's localization director Mikołaj Szwed reportedly said. Of course, this was all done with the express permission of Reczek's family. According to Szwed, Reczek's sons “were very supportive.”
It does kind of open a whole Pandora's Box of ethical dilemmas surrounding AI voiceover though, doesn't it? Is it really okay to revive a deceased person's voice for use in a video game? Did Reczek's family have the right to greenlight this use of AI on his behalf? Doesn't this conflict with the very idea of bodily autonomy? All questions I barely feel qualified to voice an opinion on.
AI Voiceover: More Controversial Than Ever
The use of AI in entertainment media has been a hot topic in general recently. In fact, it's one of the main instigators of the joint WGA & SAG-AFTRA strike, with writers and actors insisting that AI has no place in their line of work. Meanwhile, Hollywood has made it clear that it would rather skip the ethics discussions and replace all their background actors with AI if given the opportunity.
CDPR's choice to hire a real voice actor and use AI to modify his voice is certainly a more nuanced take on the subject, and a more morally defensible one than most other AI proposals. It's not hard to imagine that Reczek would rather have seen his work on Cyberpunk 2077 continued in this way. However, it could easily turn into a slippery slope leading to more callous uses of AI in video games.
How do you feel about all this? Would you want your voice to live on through AI?