Matt Lucas and Hugh Bonneville call for law on AI voice clones

More than 80 performers have signed the letter, with Derry Girls actor Siobhán McSweeney saying she was “deeply worried” that the government was lagging behind.

“There is a way to work alongside AI and to use it as a tool that benefits us rather than rendering us obsolete,” she said.

“Our audiences want that human connection. Not AI.”

As well as actors, other signatories include those working in other performing industries.

That includes Scottish singer Sandi Thom, known for her 2006 hit I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair).

She said she was signing the letter because her voice was “unique to me and was handed to me at birth”.

“Behind that voice is the emotion, the life, the pain, the tears and joy that I’ve felt along the way,” she said.

“Without creativity, we are nothing.”

It comes a few months after lawyers warned UK legislation has become “unfit for purpose” because of the advancements of AI tech.

“The law comes close, but it doesn’t fully protect your voice, your face or your identity,” Dr Mathilde Pavis said in June.

However, some people – for example those who are unable so speak properly because of illness – have welcomed technology that can replicate a person’s voice.

Yvonne Johnson, who lost her voice due to motor neurone disease, told the BBC’s Tech Life programme in February how having it cloned by AI had “totally blown her mind”, and brought her closer to her family, who had forgotten what she sounded like.

Others have gone a step further and used AI not only to replicate a person’s voice, but to create a holographic representation of them.

Pam Cronrath, from Washington state, used the tech to surprise mourners at her husband’s funeral, where a digital version of her deceased partner addressed those who attended his wake.

“I was completely impressed,” she told BBC News. “It stayed with me.”