Barb Lyon
Voice Artist

I’ll be honest: I don’t love auditioning. In fact, I kind of hate it. Voice over auditions can be really discouraging if you let them. It’s only fun when you’re winning, right? And you certainly don’t win every time. If you spend days submitting auditions with no callbacks or voiceover bookings, it can feel like a weight hanging around your neck. But last week, thanks to a Mel Robbins podcast, I reframed how I look at the whole process of auditioning for voice over work.

A few years ago, I was working with a client on a project, a video I believe, and it was patched. We had just finished up and we were chatting away, and he had a question that surprised me: what challenge did I want to conquer next. That came out of the blue. It’s kind of a weird question to get from a client, no? I surprised myself with what came out of my mouth next.

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.

Welcome to Script Happens, my little attempt at blogging where I invite you to join me in celebrating the wonderful, weird, and often unpredictable world of voice over. I’ve been behind the mic long enough to know one thing for sure: there’s nothing quite like the variety of scripts that land in your inbox. And sometimes? Things don’t go exactly as planned.