Assassin’s Creed VA Alleges Ubisoft Of Stealing Her Voice Through AI

Victoria Atkin, widely recognized as the voice actress behind the role of Evie Frye from Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has alleged Ubisoft of stealing her voice through AI. Victoria has been an active participant in the going Hollywood strikes against the use of generative artificial intelligence to replace human labor and wage issues.

The voice actress took to Twitter to share with her followers about the alleged stealing of her voice. Although her tweet is somewhat unclear in context, it probably means that for the next appearance of Evie Frye, Ubisoft will be using AI to imitate Victoria’s voice rather than actually employing her to record it.

Update on this… AI just stole my voice for this role. @sagaftra @WGAEast @WGAWest #Unionstrong #videogames #performancecapture #eviefrye #AssassinsCreed @assassinscreed @Ubisoft @latimes @Variety @DEADLINE @IGN https://t.co/IUGta4Pssh

— Victoria Atkin (@VictoriaAtkin) July 15, 2023

Additionally, Victoria earlier appeared in ongoing Hollywood strikes by various creative professionals later joined by actors. The strikes mainly focus on the proposal of a legal agreement between human artisans and Hollywood studios which aims at protecting these individuals’ rights and creations. However, the protests are still in progress due to the failure of a settlement

The VA elaborated with a picture of her protest appearance explaining how Ubisoft never paid her any residuals every time her voice was played as Evie Frye and the company made money out of it. She demanded residuals for the voice actors throughout the game being launched and played on thousands of consoles, rather than a one-time payment. 

Moreover, the increasing inclination of utilizing artificial intelligence by studios has caused a wave of fear among creative workers whether writers, voice actors, or illustrators. There is a widespread concern among these people that without straightforward regulation, AI will be able to replicate and reproduce their work while undermining their ability to earn a sustainable livelihood.

What’s more, the AI trend being a lot prominent in Hollywood has resulted in two months of persistent protests. The gaming industry might soon be on the verge of the same strikes by undermined or underpaid artists from various sections of game development. With Victoria raising her voice, another voice actor quote tweeted about the mistreatment he faced from an unnamed studio.

I know the feeling. The billions one game I voiced a popular character in paid me $650 bucks! Period! Then they embarrassed and shamed me. Yes, I received kindness from fans, but could pay no bills from my work! #ShareLove #voiceactor https://t.co/HRbyPdvxE3

— ErikToddDellums (@ErikToddDellums) July 15, 2023

There have been cases in the past over alleged mistreatment of various small-level creative individuals by the gaming industry. Recently, EA got called out for not individually crediting translators in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor raising concerns for the translation community. Moreover, Genshin Impact’s voice actors have been unpaid for months.