In recent times, whenever we hear or read that a company has used artificial intelligence, it’s usually for something negative: taking away jobs from artists or replacing administrative services. Not today.
As reported by Bloomberg, CD Projekt used AI to add new voice lines for Miłogost Reczek, a popular Polish voice actor. Reczek provided the Polish voice for the character Viktor Vektor in Cyberpunk 2077, but he passed away in 2021.
Because of this, CD Projekt had to find a way to use the character in the game’s Phantom Liberty expansion. The solution came in the form of artificial intelligence.
Erase Reczek forever, or harness AI to do good
One option was to hire a new voice actor to play the role of Viktor in the expansion, and have that actor re-record Reczek’s lines for the base game to ensure the character sounded the same throughout the experience.
However, according to CD Projekt’s localization director, Mikołaj Szwed, as explained to Bloomberg, the company “didn’t like this approach” because Reczek “was one of the best Polish voice actors” and his performance was considered “stellar.”
Instead, the company hired a new voice actor to perform the new lines and used a voice cloning program called Respeecher to change the voice and make it sound as if Reczek was delivering the lines.
CD Projekt claims to have obtained permission from Reczek’s family before moving forward with the plan, and Szwed added that the actor’s children “were very understanding.”
Last month, members of SAG-AFTRA, the American actors’ union, overwhelmingly voted in favor of a potential video game strike. But in this case, we are talking about using AI for a good cause.
