Amazon Rolls Out AI Dubs and They’re Even Worse Than You Think

One of the biggest concerns in the voice acting industry these days is the use of AI, which is why many voice actors (particularly in video games) are fighting for contracts with protections against their voices being copied and used for AI-generated dialogue. If there was ever any evidence that these protections are necessary, Amazon has given it to us by showing exactly how bad AI dubs can be.

Amazon has released an English dub of the “Banana Fish” anime, but rather than hiring actual actors to voice the characters, has instead opted to use AI. The result is a soulless mess that often mispronounces simple words and lacks the ability to emote properly in any given moment.

Not long after, viewers also discovered that Amazon has re-dubbed the “No Game, No Life” anime using artificial intelligence, despite the fact that a perfectly good dub already exists. The results are equally devoid of any form of emotion or character.

Professional voice actors often spend hours in the recording booth trying to ensure they capture the character’s emotions and deliver each line properly. Yet AI is clearly not held to the same standards. As long as it’s cheaper to enter the lines into a generative engine and use whatever it spits back out, quality evidently no longer matters.

While proponents of artificial intelligence claim that AI is an inevitable future, there are some places where the technology clearly doesn’t belong. Voice acting, like other creative endeavors, falls flat when it’s procedurally generated without any human emotion or input. Unfortunately, when profits are placed above all else, the idea of replacing the human element with AI can seem appealing, and this is the result.

Amazon’s AI-generated dubs are described as being in beta. If viewers speak up, they can help ensure it never moves past that point.