Goku's voice in Dragon Ball set to be preserved with the latest AI move

Modified Oct 07, 2024 10:30 GMT

Masako Nozawa and Son Goku (Image via Getty)

On Monday, October 7, 2024, Aoni Production and CoeFont announced that they will convert Dragon Ball voice actor Masako Nozawa's voice data into multilingual AI voices. These high-quality AI voices are being planned to be used for voice assistants, voice navigations, and similar applications.

Considering how the attention toward generative AI has been increasing in recent years, people have started asking questions about how AI should deal with voice actors who have unique characteristics. With that in mind, Aoni Production and CoeFont have launched a collaboration to stop unauthorized learning of voice actors' voices.

Dragon Ball VA Masako Nozawa's voice set to be preserved

Dragon Ball Son Goku VA Masako Nozawa (Image via Aoni Production)

On Monday, October 7, 2024, Aoni Production and CoeFont announced that they have entered a partnership to develop a global strategy that uses AI voice technology. As part of this, 10 voice actors from Aoni Production, including Masako Nozawa (Son Goku's voice in Dragon Ball), are set to participate in a project that will convert their voice data into multilingual AI voices including English and Chinese.

These high-quality AI voices will prominently be used for voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, etc., or robots equipped with voice navigation. The reason behind this project is to utilize the power of generative AI and diminish the number of incidents that see unauthorized learning of voice actors' unique characteristics. Hence, this collaboration is also a first step towards the needful rule-making to protect the rights of performers.

Son Goku as seen in the anime (Image via Toei Animation)

With such collaboration in place, the one question fans will have is whether such generative AI technology would be used for voice acting in the future. Concerning that, the two companies emphasized that they do not provide services related to voice acting and performances in anime and dubbing foreign-language films.

This means that the voice data that will be converted to multilingual AI voices will only be used for voice assistants and navigation and exclude the "acting" area, separating the AI voice technology from the acting side of the industry. With that, the actor's unique characteristics would not be meddled with in the future, even after their careers end.

The two companies also stated that the knowledge gained through their partnership will not be confined and kept confidential between the two parties. Instead, it would be used to contribute to the establishment of appropriate relationships between AI voice technology and performers in Japan and overseas.

With such steps, the collaboration is aimed to contribute to the spread of voice recognition technology and to encourage more people to use the service that features the voice of a familiar voice actor.