CDPR used AI to clone deceased Cyberpunk actor's voice in Phantom Liberty DLC

Why it topics: If you played Cyberpunk 2077, the name Viktor Vektor is most assuredly acquainted to you. Vektor was V's essential ripperdoc for the duration of the game. He became an NPC involved in several marketing campaign and side quests, so he's unmissable. Ignoring all the AI controversy regarding actors and writers, CD Projekt Red cloned his voice for the DLC expansion.

Sadly, the voice actor who portrayed Vektor in the Polish localization of the game, Milogost Reczek, died in 2021. Reczek become a well-known and respected voice actor for Polish localizations in various media. He turned into Vesemir and Thaler in The Witcher collection. He additionally dubbed the voice of Homer Simpson within the Polish release of The Simpsons Movie.

His demise was a blow for CDPR, which deliberate to have him reprise his position as Vektor inside the Phantom Liberty DLC. The studio first taken into consideration replacing him with a distinct actor but decided that would be like subbing in Denzel Washington for Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction. No disrespect to Denzel, but having him play Jules Winnfield simply would not be the identical.

"We failed to like this approach [replacing Reczek], as Milek become one of the great Polish voice competencies, and his overall performance as Viktor changed into stellar," localization director Mikolaj Szwed informed Bloomberg.

With permission from his circle of relatives, CDPR used AI to duplicate Reczek's voice with a voice cloning generation called "Respeecher." A exceptional actor portrayed Victor Vektor, after which the AI altered his traces to sound like Reczek.

"This way, we may want to keep his overall performance in the sport and pay tribute to his terrific performance as Viktor Vektor," Szwed said. "Milek's sons have been very supportive and gave us their permission to transport ahead with the project."

The procedure became not as easy as it sounds. Respeecher does now not simply overdub lines of conversation. It modifications the speaker's voice. So the actor playing Vektor in Phantom Liberty, Janusz Zadura, had to do his exceptional to imitate Reczek's performing style even as Respeecher took care of the rest. For a brief demo, check out the movies above.

So far, enthusiasts have not seemed to observe, but now that the cat is out of the proverbial bag, it is going to be thrilling to peer reactions. Disney has acquired an awful lot flak for using AI to copy actors posthumously. However, I suspect there to be a big difference between cloning a voice versus cloning a whole actor, like Carrie Fisher or Peter Cushing. At least with Respeecher, you don't need to worry approximately the uncanny valley effect.

Although CDPR's spokesperson did now not mention reimbursement for the family, it is particularly safe to count on that the studio that worked so difficult to pull CP 2077 out of a dumpster hearth might now not risk what's left of its popularity with the aid of now not paying Reczek's circle of relatives for using his voice in a paid DLC.