Almost all video games have some contribution from Artificial Intelligence, but Embark Studios is now getting flak for blatantly using AI voices in The Finals to do the jobs of real actors.
The Finals is a hot new game in the FPS genre that has managed to break through the ceiling and get the attention of players fixated on Valorant and CS2. In 2023, the shooter genre is crammed with top-tier games, so The Finals emerging as an option is commendable for Embark Studios.
However, latest revelation that The Finals uses AI voices has responsible players criticizing the developers for trying to replace humans. Amid SAG-AFTRA negotiations where AI is a hot topic, this news has put a bad taste in the mouth of concerned gaming enthusiasts.
Who’s the voice actor in The Finals?
The Finals’ decision to use AI text-to-speech was confirmed on on a podcast earlier in July, but many had missed this detail.
It was highlighted by Gianni Matragrano, who’s is a known VA for video games. Gianno shared a snippet from the podcast, where audio designer Andreas Almström explained the process of VA for The Finals.
“All the contestant voices, like the barks [and] both our commentators are AI text-to-speech. AI text-to-speech is, finally, extremely powerful, it gets us far enough in terms of quality and allows us to be extremely reactive to new ideas and keeping things really fresh,” He explained.
Gaming community isn’t sold on The Finals AI voices
The revelations has split the community, with many claiming that the AI voices in The Finals sound unreal and mechanical. However, there’s a chunk who doesn’t mind playing a game with AI voices as long as they sound humane.
According to the developer, The Final’s voice acting is a mix of AI TTS and recorded voice audio. Grunts, pants, and other audios were recorded in-house, since AI can’t replicate those yet.
Still, the community has collectively raised a concern that employing AI robs real people of jobs that they could do better. Game VA have also came forward, sending criticism towards Embark Studios for choosing this direction.
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