One of the most famous voice actors working today, Hank Azaria, has published an op-ed for The New York Times in which he discusses artificial intelligence, including his fears about the technology and his optimism for how it could be used in a positive way.
Azaria–known for voicing The Simpsons characters like Moe, Chief Wiggum, Lenny, Superintendent Chalmers, and Comic Book Guy–said AI-generated voices can have “enough little things askew” to convince people “there’s something missing.” He said it’s similar to how AI-generated faces in video may look believable to a degree but aren’t exactly perfect.
Hank Azaria voices Moe on The Simpsons, among many other characters.
Azaria said when he’s recording lines for The Simpsons, he experiments with a few different things to find what works best. “I’ll do a mad take, a glad take, a sad take, a deadpan take, one that’s aggressive, one that’s really in my feelings. It’s hard to tell which one’s going to work, but you can always tell in editing,” he said.