The Witcher actor weighs in on the use of AI

While Henry Cavill may have brought Geralt of Rivia to our TV screens, until then the character was entirely owned by Doug Cockle, the man who'd been bringing that sweet gravelly voice to our favourite Witcher since the 2007 game.

Cockle, and many other voice actors like him, are facing an entirely new landscape when it comes to their work today. With AI on the rise, voice actors are left defending themselves and the need for their work in the face of ever-improving technology.

Speaking with IGN, Cockle shared his thoughts on whether AI is dangerous or not. "AI is inevitable and developers will use AI," he said. "We are not 100% sure exactly what that means. They're already doing it in various ways, filling in background, NPC voices, and things like that, which is unfortunate because those voices were all human beings at one point, and the voices are all modelled on human beings. So they have taken someone's voice, put it into their database, digitized it, and are using it to say things that the individual never said. There's something unethical about that and so there's a lot of debate going on."

Cockle's biggest issue is when people's voices are used to spread messages without the original speaker's consent. "That's where the AI gets dangerous," he continued. "Fake news, false news, false opinions. We're seeing it with politicians now. People are putting things out there. So AI is not the problem. It's the people using AI."

Do you agree with Doug Cockle?