Barb Lyon
Voice Artist

I first met Jen Sweeney back in, gosh, I want to say maybe 1995. She was the go-to talent for Wells Fargo through Walsh Media, where I worked at the time, was brought on to service the account’s telecom needs.Jen’s personality is positively infectious. She carries this joy with her that just lifts the whole room. She has the most wicked laugh, and she has no problem laughing at herself. I’m glad to say those good vibes rubbed off on me and we became fast friends.

I was approached by a company last week to record 50,000 words for their text-to-speech (TTS) engine. The stated use? eLearning for kids and young adults. The money wasn’t terrible, especially since I’ve had a down year in the eLearning voice over genre, but a few things immediately made me pause. First, the company name wasn’t visible or offered. Now, I had recorded a TTS engine years ago for my previous employer, before I went full time into VO. The project never fully lau

I just found out that those early recordings, my voice, may be used to train AI voice models. What?! Ten years ago, no one was thinking about artificial intelligence in voiceover. I certainly never signed anything allowing my voice to be used that way. And yet, here we are. My voice is in the can, and apparently fair game for a use I never consented to: AI voice training and possible cloning.

On the surface, AI seems adequate.  It will give you the words in your document. No more. No less. But when you're producing a high-stakes corporate video narration, a K–12 eLearning module, or a regional commercial spot, you need more than “technically adequate.” AI doesn’t understand tone, storytelling, or emotion. It lacks intuition, imagination, and intention.