Ned Luke, the actor who portrays Michael in GTA 5 (one of three playable protagonists), has called out an AI company called WAME for advertising a chatbot that claims to let users have "a realistic voice conversation with Michael De Santa".
As reported by PCGamesN, Luke minced no words, responding to a WAME post on Twitter and writing: "This is f**king bulls**t WAME. Absolutely nothing cool about ripping people off with some lame computer estimation of my voice. Don't waste your time on this garbage." The actor tagged Grand Theft Audio developer Rockstar Games, as well as the debatably reliable actor's union, SAG-AFTRA.
This seemed to do the trick, and WAME quickly took down the offending chatbot, along with all related promotional material advertising the service. The company put out a response: "In light of the recent controversy surrounding the utilization of Mr Ned Luke’s voice in our application, we at WAME wish to express our profound understanding and concern."
The company goes on to say that the "incident has highlighted the intricate interplay" between the burgeoning technology and the artists it shamelessly steals from, or as WAME puts it: "Between the advancement of AI technology and the ethical and legal realms."