When you've
been bringing to life the greatest childhood hero of millions for four decades,
your voice becomes a priceless heritage. That's why it's no surprise that the
legendary Masako Nozawa has held nothing back when talking about
AI-generated videos that use her voice without asking her permission, calling
this practice an unforgivable theft.
During an
interview with Japanese media, the 89-year-old actress expressed her deep anger
at those who use her work to train digital tools. The iconic seiyuu explained
that technology will never be able to replicate the emotion or real feeling
that an actor imprints on his character. Although a copy may sound technically
similar, Nozawa made it clear that if a performance has no heart, it is simply
useless, because even a cry sounds different when acting with real emotions.
The
actress's forceful statements come just as the Screen Actors Guild of Japan, a
body that represents more than 2,600 professionals in the medium, presented a
series of official guidelines to protect the voice of industry figures. These
new rules require content creators and companies to obtain explicit consent
from artists before using their voices to train AI models or release
recordings, while also ensuring fair financial compensation.
It should
be clarified that the artist is not against technological advances as such, as
she even expressed her enthusiasm for the future potential of these tools.
However, their annoyance lies in the lack of ethics of those who take the work
of others without authorization. The voice of the Saiyans joins that of other
great figures of the medium such as Megumi Ogata, remembered for her role as
Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion, who long ago described voice
cloning as something disheartening for creators.
Masako
Nozawa is one of
the most respected and influential voice actresses in the history of Japanese
animation. Born in 1936, the actress has uninterruptedly given life to
legendary characters such as Goku, Gohan and Goten within the Dragon Ball
franchise since her television debut in 1986. Her historical trajectory and
cultural impact led her to become the first person in the dubbing guild to
receive the prestigious recognition as a Person of Cultural Merit by the
Japanese government.
