A former NPR radio host has sued Google and its father or mother firm Alphabet, alleging that the tech large used his voice for its NotebookLM AI product.
David Greene, former host of NPR’s Morning Version and present host of KCRW’s Left, Proper & Heart, filed the lawsuit in California Superior Courtroom in Santa Clara County. “Google used Mr. Greene’s voice with out authorization after which used these stolen copies to develop, practice, and refine its AI broadcasting product, NotebookLM,” the lawsuit alleges.
NotebookLM is an AI-powered analysis assistant that generates insights from knowledge that you just enter into the system. Google final yr introduced audio and video overviews for NotebookLM. Within the case of the previous, somebody utilizing the software program can generate an AI podcast primarily based on info in a file you add. Greene says that others started informing him after the autumn 2024 addition of the function that one of many voices in these podcasts sounded lots like his.
“These allegations are baseless,” a Google spokesperson advised CNET. “The sound of the male voice in NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews relies on a paid skilled actor Google employed.” Google has not recognized the voice actor that it says it paid for work on NotebookLM.
In response to the lawsuit, Greene mentioned he employed an unbiased forensic software program firm that focuses on voice recognition to match his voice to the one in query on NotebookLM.
“The corporate performed a radical evaluation of the voice similarity between Mr. Greene’s voice and the voice utilized in NotebookLM,” the lawsuit says. “The checks indicated a confidence ranking of 53%-60% (on a -100% to 100% scale) that Mr. Greene’s voice was used to coach the software program driving NotebookLM.”
The voices {of professional} voice actors or celebrities have been the topic of earlier complaints, lawsuits and licensing offers. In 2024, Scarlett Johansson raised concerns about an OpenAI voice that sounded just like hers. The corporate eliminated the sound-alike. Final yr, ElevenLabs struck a deal to license voices from celebrities together with Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine.
