Behind a widely used AI voice in social media is a real German voice actor. He initially knew nothing about the use of his voice and is now speaking out about it.
Which voice is it? The use of AI in social media is now fully established. Some content creators use voice overs in their videos that are not spoken by real people.
The editing software CapCut offers an AI-generated voice named “Santa Claus.” It is a deep male voice that speaks in an explanatory tone. This voice is, as it turns out, not just a pure AI product.
“Santa Voice” is actually the “Explainer Bear Voice”
What is behind the voice? The “Santa Claus voice” is not a voice generated purely through Artificial Intelligence; it is based on the German voice actor Jens Wendland.
He has already voiced countless dubbing roles, both in television and in video games. Jens Wendland lends his voice not only to minor roles, such as in Mafia: The Old Country, but also to some iconic main characters like Nathan Drake from Uncharted 2 to 4.
The professional speaker initially had no idea that this AI voice was based on him, and many users of the editing app likely did not either. The actress Cosma, who regularly uploads content on her TikTok channel cosmadujat, brought it to his attention.
In a joint TikTok featuring Cosma and Jens Wendland, the voice actor discussed the use of his voice with the help of AI. He refers to this voice in his repertoire as “Explainer Bear.”
The voice actor is not upset that his AI voice is used more than himself. He is not looking to halt the development of AI, but he believes there needs to be a conversation about the use of AI concerning the voices of real people. Jens Wendland thinks there should be discussions about personality and copyright issues. He also mentioned:
I want to decide for what I lend my voice. I do not want my voice to possibly appear in formats that I would personally never support. We all need to handle AI much more consciously.
– Jens Wendland via TikTok
Finally, Jens Wendland states: If people need narrators for their videos, they should simply reach out to voice actors. This way, the videos would be created with more “love and subtleties.”
AI can animate both voices and the person themselves based on real people. An advertisement featuring the Twitch streamer MontanaBlack proves that his community is already satisfied with the AI-generated version for advertising. Read more about it here on MeinMMO: A supermarket is advertising with a double of MontanaBlack – Showing that the Twitch streamer could retire
