Controversial Dubbing in The Finals Used Both Actors and AI
The shooter The Finals has stirred up quite a bit of controversy with its use of AI dubbing, although it turns out that the issue is not as simple as it might seem. The first cheaters have also begun to appear in the game.
The Finals, the online shooter from Embark, studio founded by veterans of Battlefield, is triumphing on Steam. The ongoing open beta is enjoying tremendous interest. Meanwhile, considerable controversy has appeared over the game's use of AI-generated content.
- The games voice actor Gianni Matragrano pointed out that in The Finals voices are generated by AI and are of fairly low quality.
- The developers claim that AI enables them to make changes quickly, even on the same day, while using actors would take weeks or even months. However, the actors responded that this is no excuse, as instant one-day recording sessions are nothing new in the industry, on top of which the actors take less than a thousand dollars for such a thing.
- In response to this criticism, developers at Embark Studios have informed, that in The Finals players can hear both actors and AI-generated voices, and such a mix allows the developers for more flexibility.
- At the same time, they assured that the team has no plans to stop emploting actors, as artificial intelligence is not capable of delivering emotional reenactments at the level provided by humans. Instead, AI is used by developers to provide contextual dubbing, tailored to specific situations in a way that would be difficult to achieve traditionally.
AI a hot topic not only in the game industry
Replacing actors with AI is currently a hot topic not only in the gaming industry. This issue is one of the main topics of the current strike of movie and television actors in Hollywood. In turn, those who do voiceovers in video games are alerting that provisions have begun to appear in contracts that give developers the right to clone the voice of a hired actor and use it later without any restrictions or additional payment. For the time being, such provisions are mostly thrown out of contracts during negotiations, but people in the profession fear that this will become increasingly difficult in the future.
Open beta of The Finals is available on PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, and the game offers a cross-play option, enabling owners of different platforms to play together. Testing will last until November 5.
Unfortunately, the joy of the open beta was a bit spoiled by the appearance of cheaters who use paid apps. It remains to be hoped that the developers will learn from this and properly protect the full version from cheaters.
