NPR host David Greene accuses Google of stealing his voice for AI

NPR host David Greene accuses Google of stealing his voice for AI

A longtime NPR radio host is suing Google for allegedly stealing his voice for the male podcaster voice in its AI podcast tool, according to a swimsuit filed in Santa Clara County, Calif.

David Greene – the former host of “Morning Edition” and “Up First,” and current voice of KCRW’s “Left, Right & Center” – said he first heard of NotebookLM, Google’s AI tool that churns out automated podcasts on demand, when a former colleague emailed him. 

“So…I’m probably the 148th person to ask this, but did you license your voice to Google?” Greene’s former co-worker wrote in an e mail in fall 2024, after the tool’s launch. “It sounds very much like you!”

Former NPR host David Greene is suing Google. WGALTV

According to the lawsuit, Greene’s inboxes had been soon flooded with messages from household, associates and colleagues asking whether or not Greene had struck a take care of Google to make use of his voice to coach its podcast tool – which has a male podcaster voice and a feminine one that converse.

“I was, like, completely freaked out,” Greene told the Washington Post. “It’s this eerie moment where you feel like you’re listening to yourself.”

“I’m not some crazy anti-AI activist. It’s just been a very weird experience.”

Google, which launched its automated podcast tool in 2024, denied the claims in the lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 23.

“These allegations are baseless. The sound of the male voice in NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews is based on a paid professional actor Google hired,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda told The Post.

Greene – who landed his first job at NPR in 2005 – said the male podcast voice on NotebookLM sounded just like him, with the same cadence and intonation and occasional “uhs” and “likes.”

“My voice is, like, the most important part of who I am,” Greene told the Washington Post, including that his spouse’s eyes popped when he performed the AI podcast for her.

Google’s NotebookLM makes use of AI to churn out podcasts. Google

His lawsuit alleges however doesn’t supply proof that Google spoofed his voice for its AI-powered podcast generator.

The criticism cites an unnamed AI forensic agency that used its software to research audio from NotebookLM – giving it a 53% to 60% rating that Greene’s voice was used to coach the bot. This is a “relatively high” confidence rating, according to the lawsuit.

Greene’s lawsuit is just the latest to query a major tech agency over doable copyright infringement in its training of AI instruments.

Scarlett Johansson threatened authorized action against OpenAI in 2024, when it launched a “Sky” chatbot voice that sounded much like the well-known actress – after she turned down a suggestion from the company to voice one of its upcoming bots. OpenAI finally wiped Sky from its platform.

Google denied the claims in Greene’s lawsuit. REUTERS

Social media platform X, previously generally known as Twitter, confronted backlash in 2024 after sexually express “deepfake” photographs of Taylor Swift had been seen tens of millions of occasions on the app. 

The platform quickly eliminated the singer’s title and associated phrases from its search bar – though one of the AI-generated photographs had already been seen 47 million occasions before it was taken down.

Greene’s lawyer – Joshua Michelangelo Stein, a accomplice at Boies Schiller Flexner – is also representing ebook authors including comic Sarah Silverman and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates of their AI copyright lawsuit against Meta.

“We have faith in the court and encourage people to listen to the example audio themselves,” Stein told the Washington Post. 

Stein didn’t instantly reply to The Post’s request for remark.

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