Two voice actors have filed a lawsuit against AI startup Lovo in a Manhattan federal court, alleging that the company unlawfully duplicated their voices and utilized them without consent in its AI voiceover technology.
Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage, in the proposed class-action lawsuit, claim that Lovo, headquartered in San Francisco, is marketing AI renditions of their voices without authorization, having deceived them into providing voice samples for the company. Seeking damages exceeding $5 million for the class, the actors accuse Lovo of fraud, false advertising, and infringing upon their publicity rights.
This lawsuit adds to a growing trend of high-profile legal battles where tech firms are accused of misappropriating content, including books, news articles, and song lyrics, to fuel generative AI systems.
However, Lehrman later discovered AI versions of his voice in YouTube videos discussing Russian military equipment and in a podcast episode about “the perils of AI technologies.” Similarly, Sage’s voice was employed for Lovo’s promotional materials, the lawsuit alleges.
Lehrman later found out that his Fiverr client was a Lovo employee, as per the lawsuit.
The actors claim they later found out that Lovo was marketing the use of Lehrman’s voice to subscribers as “Kyle Snow” and Sage’s as “Sally Coleman.” In response to a cease-and-desist letter, the company allegedly dismissed the actors’ concerns, stating that their voices were “not popular” and their sales were “insignificant.”
