GTA 5 Actor Rages Against “Lame Douchebag” AI Company That Stole His Voice 

The actor behind GTA 5’s iconic main character  took to social media to rage against an AI company that cloned his voice for a chatbot.

Ned Luke, most known to GTA fans as Michael De Santa, was absolutely enraged when he found out AI company WAME had deployed a GTA ‘Michael’ chatbot and promoted it on Twitter.

‘Enraged’ might actually be an understatement, as the actor came out guns blazing against everyone: the company who did the AI chatbot, Rockstar Games, GTA’s publisher, and his union. Luke raged against SAG-AFTRA, the major Hollywood union, which recently ended its long strike and created an “AI agreement” designed to protect artists.

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WAME, the AI company, promoted the Michael De Santo chatbot with the message with the text: “Any GTA fans around here? Now take your gaming experience to another level. Try having a realistic voice conversation with Michael De Santa, the protagonist of GTA 5, right now!”.

Immediately after, Ned Luke replied to them that there’s “absolutely nothing cool about ripping people off with some lame computer estimation of my voice,” tagging Rockstar and SAG-AFTRA.

This is fucking bullshit @wamexyz absolutely nothing cool about ripping people off with some lame computer estimation of my voice. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS GARBAGE…

Grand Theft Vocal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️@RockstarGames @rclark98 @sagaftra https://t.co/QKGxygRp7x

— Ned Luke (@ned_luke) January 14, 2024

Then, in a reply to the heated conversation, Luke said he is not “worried about being replaced”, just incredibly angry.

“I just hate these fuckers, and am pissed as fuck that our shitty union is so damn weak that this will soon be an issue on legit work, not just some lame douchebag tryna make $$ off of our voices,” the actor wrote.

I'm not worried about being replaced, Roger. I just hate these fuckers, and am pissed as fuck that our shitty union is so damn weak that this will soon be an issue on legit work, not just some lame douchebag tryna make $$ off of our voices.

— Ned Luke (@ned_luke) January 14, 2024

After that, WAME still had the audacity to comment, saying that “this incident has highlighted the intricate interplay between the advancement of AI technology and the ethical and legal realms.” Then, just to make sure they’d enrage people further, they added that “WAME commits to protecting the rights of voice actors and creators while advancing ethical AI practices.”

Ain’t that so?

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