Nicola Coughlan, Luke Evans, and Hugh Bonneville are among the British actors lending their names to a campaign demanding legal protection for performers against artificial intelligence voice cloning.
The campaign, Save Our Voices Now, was founded by actor Peter Caulfield and audiobook narrator Alice Sockett. BAFTA winner Siobhán McSweeney and Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes have also endorsed it. The group is calling on the UK government to give individuals enforceable copyright ownership over their own voice.
The campaign exists in a landscape that is already shifting fast. According to Deadline, Michael Caine has handed his voice over to AI. Liza Minnelli is making music with AI. Dead actors including John Wayne are having their voices resurrected by AI, with the blessing of their estates. The question the campaign is asking is what protections exist when consent is never given at all.
In the UK, the current answer is: very few.
The Save Our Voices Now Parliament petition has gathered more than 4,000 signatures. The British government launched a major copyright consultation in December 2024 and received 11,520 responses, many from creators and rights holders. When it published the results in March, the government said there was no clear consensus on strengthening AI copyright laws, despite 81% of respondents endorsing greater protections.
Five months later, the government's response to the campaign was to announce another consultation. A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: "It is right that we value and protect human creators, and that is why we have announced we will launch a consultation on how we address these harms, while protecting legitimate innovation."
Caulfield was blunt in his reaction. "A consultation is such a big fob-off," he told Deadline. "We don't need a second consultation in as many years. We need the law to change."
He launched the campaign after submitting audition tapes that he believes were used to train AI systems without his consent. Since the campaign began, he says the volume of reported abuses has grown. "Since we started the campaign, we've been inundated with shocking stories about how big brands are taking people's voices without consent, and AI software is being used to defraud families," he said.
Actors' union Equity has also expressed frustration with the government's position. Meanwhile, the United States and Denmark are both advancing legislation that gives citizens rights over digital replicas of themselves. "The UK is very much lagging behind," Caulfield said.
The DCMS did not respond to questions about why a second consultation is necessary or what it is expected to achieve.
