Brazilian voice actors create “Dublagem viva” movement to call for regulation of the use of AI

Brazilian voice actors create “Dublagem viva” movement to call for regulation of the use of AI

Widespread in 2023, generative artificial intelligence (AI) began to be used to replicate the voices of singers and actors. On this basis, in November 2023, a group of Brazilian voice actors joined a global movement to demand the regulation of AI in audiovisual productions. The national adhesion to the movement was widely publicized at the beginning of that year. Thus, the national campaign entitled “Dublagem viva” seeks to protect the performance of these professionals in the market in the face of new technology.

Internationally, the “Real voices” movement is headed by the “United Voice Artists” organization, which includes unions and associations of voice actors from more than 20 countries (including Brazil) and has already been signed by almost 100,000 people. To a large extent, the campaign is also inspired by the Hollywood actors’ and screenwriters’ strike in 2023, which sought, among other things, to regulate the use of AI by production studios.

The official Living Dubbing manifesto suggests that “AI can help fight content piracy by providing more effective mechanisms to detect and block illegal reproductions. Create voice recognition and content analysis mechanisms to identify attempts at unauthorized use of dubbed material, protecting the copyrights and related rights of their holders, ensuring that artists and studios are duly remunerated for each screening”.

Also, according to the movement, “the regulations must be drawn up in such a way as to balance technological advances with the preservation of jobs and guarantee the quality of dubbing, while maintaining respect for professionals and the audiovisual industry, which has a huge production chain”.

In this way, dubbing artists demand several points when it comes to regulating AI. Among them, that AI should not be used to reproduce the voices of actors from other languages into Portuguese; that the use of AI in dubbing should comply with the Copyright Law (Law 9610/98) and employment contracts; and that AI should not be used to disseminate any kind of discrimination (gender, racial, ethnic, etc.). And finally, they demand that the regulation be comprehensive and that there be the participation of professionals in the sector, from the voice actors themselves to experts on the subject and other representatives of civil society.

The official manifesto of the “Dublagem Viva” movement can be accessed via the link: https://dublagemviva.com.br/index.php/manifesto/

Note: For quick release and cost control, this English version is provided by automated translation without human review.