Neil Newbon believes AI voice acting ruins game immersion.
Actor Neil Newbon, known for his role as Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3 and a recipient of prestigious awards for voice acting, has strongly condemned the use of artificial intelligence to generate voices in video games. In an interview with PCGamesN, he called AI voice acting "boring as hell" and stated that it ruins game immersion.
According to Newbon, the cost of recording voice lines with real actors is "peanuts" compared to the overall game development budget.
When a game becomes super successful, why not go back and re-record those lines with actors? Now there's money.
Newbon emphasized the ethical side of the issue.
If you don't record the lines initially, and just take someone's voice and manipulate it however you want, that's a problem. You're depriving the actor of a day's pay and the opportunity to support themselves and their family. Most actors aren't rich — we struggle to survive our entire careers.
