“The Simpsons” star Hank Azaria has voiced his fears over artificial intelligence in a new opinion piece.
The actor, who has been with the show since 1989, wrote an opinion essay for The New York Times, worrying AI “will be able to recreate the sounds of the more than 100 voices I created for characters on ‘The Simpsons.’”
He continued, “It makes me sad to think about it. Not to mention, it seems just plain wrong to steal my likeness or sound — or anyone else’s.”
Azaria voices dozens of characters on the show, including bartender Moe Syzlak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Professor Frink and many more.
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“But a voice is not just a sound. And I’d like to think that no matter how much an AI version of Moe or Snake or Chief Wiggum will sound like my voice, something will still be missing — the humanness. There’s so much of who I am that goes into creating a voice. How can the computer conjure all that?” he wrote.
AI expert Marva Bailer told Fox News Digital, “When we look at animated characters, there is a person behind that character and there’s also a person behind the voice, because we identify the character with the image, but also that unique voice and voices aren’t just reading a script. A voice has a personality to it and emotion and a connection. And so his point that he’s trying to make is he’s actually developing these characters over time, and he’s developing them through his life experience.”
She continued, “He’s been doing this a very, very long time. And as he’s interacted with these characters, he developed, developed new personalities and the ways that the characters react with each other and new characters that they meet, just like we do as humans. And so he does have a valid point.”
In the piece, which also featured video clips of Azaria acting out his various roles, the 60-year-old elaborated on the physicality that goes into voice-over performances, like running in place, using props and working up real tears, all of which would be missing from an artificially generated voice.
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“An AI-generated voice has enough little things askew to make you think there’s something missing,” the “The Birdcage” star said. “It just isn’t compelling or funny in the same way that AI-generated faces in video seem to be missing elements that would make them believable and human-seeming — too often micro-expressions and gestures are not quite right.”
He explained his worries about the technology impacting his career, admitting, “There may be some aspects of a performance that AI can enhance.”
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“So, if I’m being honest, I am a little worried. This is my job. This is what I love to do, and I don’t want to have to stop doing it. The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that the technology for making faces seem fully human is five years away. I fear that the voice equivalent is also coming.”
“Something that AI does for us is if we have an idea or creativity, and we want to know what something sounds like or thinks like or looks like, and maybe we don’t have it in our repertoire or our community, it can give us those inspirations,” Bailer said. “And that’s really what Hank is bringing to the picture.”
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The “Godzilla” star also shared that he sees some positive aspects to the technology, like recreating the late Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs Bunny.
“Maybe it would work especially well if someone like me, who is intimately familiar with the subtleties of the character, could help recreate what Bugs Bunny was doing by essentially directing AI,” he suggested.
“The whole nostalgia opportunity is valid,” Bailer said. “And we’re seeing these new experiences where Elvis comes to life, where ABBA comes to life, and there are situations where the actors or the estates or the rights owners are turning over that content. And yes, it can be created in a new way for a new generation. And it brings opportunity to these voice actors that could bring these characters to life with new voices and maybe new parts of their families or communities that they’re going to intertwine.”
She added, “We do need to protect our IP and keep doing a great job being humans and then using AI as that assistant to accelerate new experiences that we might not have even thought of.”
There is also another consideration for the use of AI when it comes to “The Simpsons,” the aging cast.
Last November, Azaria’s voice acting co-star, Pamela Hayden, who provided the voice of characters like Bart’s friend, Milhouse, among many others, announced she was retiring from the show after 35 years.
“How many actors can say they’ve worked on a show for 35 years straight?” the 70-year-old told Variety. “That alone is amazing. But it was time for me to devote my time to other creative endeavors that I have, like filmmaking.”
“It was a tough decision,” she added, “but I feel like it was the right one.”
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Hayden told the outlet producers were auditioning new actors for the role, and offered advice to make it their own.
“It is a sticky wicket in the sense that, I don’t think it’s ever good to just do an impression. It is a difficult task [to] put your stamp on a character, but to still make it sound like the character that has already originated,” she said. “You want them to bring their own gift to the party.”
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Other key cast members include Dan Castellaneta, 67, who voices Homer and dozens of others, Julie Kavner, 74, the voice of Marge, Nancy Cartwright, 67, the voice of Bart and several others, Yeardley Smith, 60, the voice of Lisa, and Harry Shearer, the voice of Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns and many, many more.
“Simpsons” showrunner Matt Selman told People last year, not long before Hayden’s retirement, that he’s in “super denial” about the possibility of any of his cast members suddenly dying.
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“I don’t think about it, so I’m just going to not think about that,” he added. “But certainly, it’s just if the show ever does a last episode.”
Bailer noted, “Eighty percent of us are going to acquire a disability during our working years. So there could be a scenario where you’re supposed to go to work, and you have to read script and beyond, and you have a cold and your voice doesn’t sound like it did last week, or maybe you actually had a serious car accident and now your voice really doesn’t sound exactly alike. And so if [AI] can fine tune your instrument, that would be a good thing. But again, it needs to be transparent. There needs to be agreements in place and transparency and ownership is really what’s going to be important.”
Azaria concluded that regardless of AI’s capabilities, there would still need to be a human element behind the scenes.
“I think we’ll still need someone who in his mind and heart and soul knows what needs to be done. AI can make the sound, but it will still need people to make the performance. Will the computer ever understand emotion on its own, what’s moving and what’s funny? Now we’re getting into science fiction, because for that, I think, the AI would have to be alive.”
