But don’t worry, CD Projekt RED (CDPR) had no problems, as they had the consent of the voice actor’s family.

Bloomberg reported that the Polish studio used artificial intelligence to use the voice of the late Miłogost Reczek. He voiced Viktor Vektor. Reczek appeared in several games (Destiny 2, where he played the role of Speaker, Detroit: Become Human as Carl Manfred, or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as Vesemir), but he died in December 2021 at the age of 60.

According to CDP’s localisation director Mikołaj Szwed, they considered replacing the old voice with a new one (i.e. removing Reczek’s voice track), but they didn’t like the idea as it would have allowed them to keep Reczek’s voice in the base game and pay tribute to his performance as Viktor Vektor in the first-person RPG set in Night City.

The Reczek family agreed to keep the character’s original voice. According to Szwed, they were very supportive of CDPR’s use of a voice-cloning AI, Respeecher. It is likely that the Poles recorded the audio track with someone else and then modified it with the software so that we end up hearing what Viktor Vektor said in Reczek’s voice (because, for example, Barack Obama, a former president of the United States, can be imitated with Respeecher).

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is being released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC, and the full release of the game (which is not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen) is also, by definition, only for the two current-gen consoles and PC, as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One did not receive the single add-on for the game. However, a sequel is on the way (and it’s mainly being made by the North American studio, if I remember correctly), while the Polish studio is also working on a remake of the first The Witcher and The Witcher 4.

So not everyone is condemning AI.

Source: PCGamer