James Earl Jones lets AI take over the voice of Darth Vader
Darth Vader in Disney Plus’ Obi Wan. | Image: LucasfilmJames Earl Jones has been the iconic voice of Darth Vader since the beginning of Star Wars, but at 91 years old, it seems he’s ready to have the work...
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/ James Earl Jones plans to step away from his role as the voice of Darth Vader, but a Ukrainian startup could help keep Jones’ legendary voice alive
Sep 24, 2022, 9:37 PM UTC|
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Image: Lucasfilm
James Earl Jones has been the iconic voice of Darth Vader since the beginning of Star Wars, but at 91 years old, it seems he’s ready to have the work done for him. According to a report from Vanity Fair (via Deadline), Jones signed over the rights to his archival voice work, allowing the Ukrainian startup Respeecher to leverage AI technology and recreate the sound of his voice in Disney Plus’ Obi-Wan Kenobi.
To do this, Respeecher uses sound bites to “clone” an actor’s voice, allowing a studio to record new lines without having the actor present. Matthew Wood, Skywalker Sound’s supervising sound editor, told Vanity Fair that he presented Jones with the option once he “mentioned he was looking into winding down” the role of Darth Vader. After Jones gave Lucasfilm permission to use the AI-generated voice, Vanity Fair says the studio tasked Respeecher with making Vader sound like Jones’ “dark side villain from 45 years ago” in Disney Plus’ Obi-Wan Kenobi.
This is why you might notice that Vader sounds a lot like he did in the earlier films in Obi-Wan, as opposed to Jones’ actual voice in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Despite the studio’s use of AI for Vader’s voice, Wood says Jones takes on the role of a “benevolent godfather,” and still helps guide the studio’s depiction of the villain.
This isn’t the first time Respeecher has worked with Lucasfilms, either. The startup also generated a voice for the younger version of Luke Skywalker in Disney Plus’ The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. In a press release, Respeecher explains that it used clips from “many early years’ worth of radio broadcasts, interviews, ADRs, and dubs” with Mark Hamill to digitally recreate Skywalker’s voice.
Other AI speech synthesis tools like Voicemod, Veritone, Descript, and Resemble AI have also emerged as potential ways for celebrities and creators to digitally recreate their voices.” As my colleague James Vincent points out, the trend could become popular among celebrities who want to “boost their income with minimal effort by cloning and renting out their voice.” Or, in Jones’ case, it could help preserve the voice of arguably one of the most famous villains in film.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes the state’s “BitLicense” law.
The bill, called the Digital Financial Assets Law, would establish a regulatory framework for companies that transact with cryptocurrency in the state, similar to New York’s BitLicense system. In a statement, Newsom says it’s “premature to lock a licensing structure” and that implementing such a program is a “costly undertaking:”
A more flexible approach is needed to ensure regulatory oversight can keep up with rapidly evolving technology and use cases, and is tailored with the proper tools to address trends and mitigate consumer harm.
Look at this Thing.
At its Tudum event today, Netflix showed off a new clip from the Tim Burton series Wednesday, which focused on a very important character: the sentient hand known as Thing. The full series starts streaming on November 23rd.
Get ready for some Netflix news.
At 1PM ET today Netflix is streaming its second annual Tudum event, where you can expect to hear news about and see trailers from its biggest franchises, including The Witcher and Bridgerton. I’ll be covering the event live alongside my colleague Charles Pulliam-Moore, and you can also watch along at the link below. There will be lots of expected names during the stream, but I have my fingers crossed for a new season of Hemlock Grove.
Twitch’s creators SVP is leaving the company.
Constance Knight, Twitch’s senior vice president of global creators, is leaving for a new opportunity, according to Bloomberg’s Cecilia D’Anastasio. Knight shared her departure with staff on the same day Twitch announced impending cuts to how much its biggest streamers will earn from subscriptions.
Has the Windows 11 2022 Update made your gaming PC stutter?
Nvidia GPU owners have been complaining of stuttering and poor frame rates with the latest Windows 11 update, but thankfully there’s a fix. Nvidia has identified an issue with its GeForce Experience overlay and the Windows 11 2022 Update (22H2). A fix is available in beta from Nvidia’s website.
If you’re using crash detection on the iPhone 14, invest in a really good phone mount.
Motorcycle owner Douglas Sonders has a cautionary tale in Jalopnik today about the iPhone 14’s new crash detection feature. He was riding his LiveWire One motorcycle down the West Side Highway at about 60 mph when he hit a bump, causing his iPhone 14 Pro Max to fly off its handlebar mount. Soon after, his girlfriend and parents received text messages that he had been in a horrible accident, causing several hours of panic. The phone even called the police, all because it fell off the handlebars. All thanks to crash detection.
Riding a motorcycle is very dangerous, and the last thing anyone needs is to think their loved one was in a horrible crash when they weren’t. This is obviously an edge case, but it makes me wonder what other sort of false positives we see as more phones adopt this technology.
Ford is running out of its own Blue Oval badges.
Running out of semiconductors is one thing, but running out of your own iconic nameplates is just downright brutal. The Wall Street Journal reports badge and nameplate shortages are impacting the automaker's popular F-series pickup lineup, delaying deliveries and causing general chaos.
Some executives are even proposing a 3D printing workaround, but they didn’t feel like the substitutes would clear the bar. All in all, it's been a dreadful summer of supply chain setbacks for Ford, leading the company to reorganize its org chart to bring some sort of relief.
Spain’s Transports Urbans de Sabadell has La Bussí.
Once again, the US has fallen behind in transportation — call it the Bussí gap. A hole in our infrastructure, if you will.
