Video Campaign: Voice Actors & AI
Hi AoIR, Today is Voice Actor's Day in Brazil! DigiLabour research lab (University of Toronto), the Brazilian Voice Actors' Association (Dublar), and the Dublagem Viva movement are launching a video campaign in defence of human work in voice acting, calling for AI regulation that respects workers and cultural identities. The campaign argues that this labour cannot be erased by systems that clone and synthesize voices. "No technology has the right to erase what makes us human." It features two voices that are part of the public's affective memory in Brazil: Cec?lia Lemes and Carlos Campanile. Alongside the Brazilian professionals, the video brings together a transnational alliance, in partnership with four voice actor associations around the world. In it, voice actors each declare, in their own language, "this is my voice," to show that defending vocie acting is a shared cause that crosses borders. Participants include Tim Friedlander, president of the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) in the United States; Maureen Herman of ChileVoces in Chile; Ganessh Divekar, president of the Association of Voice Artists (AVA) in Mumbai, India; and Doroth?e Anziger of the Synchronverband ? Die Gilde in Germany. "Together, we are many voices," says one passage. Voice actors are today among the cultural workers mobilizing most actively against the uses of AI worldwide. According to the database on the topic maintained by the Creative Labour & Critical Futures project, which maps strikes, protests, and campaigns by cultural workers in relation to AI around the world, voice acting is one of the most active categories in this mobilization and the one with the strongest presence in the Global South. This project is funded by Research, Creative & Professional Practice Grant (RCPP), Department of Arts, Culture and Media, University of Toronto Scarborough. Watch the video: https://youtube.com/shorts/Lii8kOFcvIQ Also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaJMALOpUja/ Links: - Database: https://creativelabourcriticalfutures.ca/resource-files/tracker-ai-mobilizat... - Article on Brazilian voice actors & AI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-026-03013-w best, Rafael -- dr. Rafael Grohmann Assistant Professor of Media Studies Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann> Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/> University of Toronto Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/> Research Associate, University of Oxford<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/rafael-grohmann/> Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS> Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/report-launch-worker-owned-platforms-and-intersectionality-in-brazil-and-argentina/> Principal Investigator, Digital Sovereignty Archives<https://creativelabourcriticalfutures.ca/blog/digital-sovereignty-project-with-brazils-homeless-workers-movement-receives-sshrc-funding/> Co-Lead, Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF)<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/> Researcher, AI Policy Observatory for the World of Work<https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/ai-policy-observatory-for-the-world-of-work> Senior Fellow, Massey College<https://www.masseycollege.ca/> Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society<https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/> <https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/>
participants (1)
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rafael.grohmann@utoronto.ca