Written by: Rukayat Alabede
In the wake of growing debates over the rise of Artificial Intelligence and it’s potential threats to the Voiceover industry, A federal judge in New York has allowed a lawsuit to move forward from two voice-over artists, Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage, that claimed their voices were stolen by an AI voice startup, based in California, Lovo Inc.
Although The judge dismissed claims by the voice artists that their voices were subject to federal copyright, claims from the artists of breach of contract and deceptive business practices, as well as separate copyright claims alleging that the voices were improperly used as part of the AI’s training data, will, proceed accordingly.
Meanwhile, the company, Lovo Inc. through their counsel has asked for the case to be dismissed entirely, describing the voice actors allegation as a ‘kitchen sink approach’. It added that their claims failed to make an actionable claim against the company.
However, the couple’s attorney, Steve Cohen, hailed the decision as a ‘spectacular victory’ for his clients, saying he was confident a future Judge will hold big tech accountable for their actions.
The case is now set to move ahead in the US District Court in Manhattan.
The Judge’s decision came after a flood of cases from voice over artists against AI companies alleging misuse of their work to train AI models.
The voice artists, Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage had filed a proposed class action lawsuit in 2024 after learning alleged clones of their voices were for sale via Lovo’s text-to-speech platform Genny.
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