The team behind the game Castle of Secrets has a somewhat negative view of artificial intelligence.

Allegedly, Serene Questworks wanted to hire fewer actors by using AI to voice more characters with stolen voices. The indie studio is accused of using AI tools to generate more characters from the performance of a single voice actor. According to two voice actors, Castle of Secrets is using AI voices instead of the voices of the voice actors originally selected. One voice actor, Mika Nerida, posted a message on Twitter claiming to have been cast for the game, but then realized that the studio wanted to use an AI tool to add new voices to her recorded lines, essentially turning her performance into multiple characters played by different “actors.

“Hey voice actors. Put your finger down if you were about to be in a video game, but the developers decided that they wanted to use AI-trained voices over YOUR takes for over 4000+ lines, then decided to not only use you, but every voice actor they had, denying other talent on board? Oh ok,” Nerida wrote.

They also posted a screenshot, which turned out to be of another voice actor, Ian Mitchell, showing him being banned from the game’s Steam forum for being personally hostile to the project and pushing his point of view. Mitchell has confirmed this, claiming that the proposed AI tool is not just a voice filter, but sounds like a completely different person compared to him. The developers had planned to save on the cost of different voice actors, although the voice actors who auditioned for them could cover a huge range of sounds.

Mitchell wrote that they asked developers to just let them talk, rather than using computers to replace their power. When developers publish games on Steam, they must disclose whether they use generative (content-creating) artificial intelligence in any way. If they deny the use of AI, they risk having their games removed from the store if it is discovered without confirmation that they are using AI. The Steam page for Castle of Secrets has a statement about generative AI that simply says that the game sometimes has AI-generated voice acting.

Serene Questworks has not yet publicly addressed the allegations against them…

Source: VGC