Tomb Raider remaster developer sued by French Lara Croft voice actor over alleged AI use

Aspyr, the developer of the recent Tomb Raider remaster compilations, is being sued by Lara Croft’s French voice actor, Françoise Cadol, who has accused the studio of using AI-generated voice lines in the remasters of Tomb Raider IV–VI.

The details:

• Speaking to French news outlet Le Parisien (via The Gamer), Cadol claims that Aspyr used AI to create voice lines that resemble her performances as Lara Croft without her permission. She added that the developer did not inform her that they would be using AI, nor did they make it clear to fans, accusing it of "misleading consumers."
• Following the release of the game earlier this year, some fans noticed the differences in the voice acting compared to their original PlayStation 1 and 2 counterparts. In the clips shared online, it can clearly be heard that in a tutorial scene, Cadol’s original voice lines are used, only to be followed by a much more robotic-sounding performance a second later. "It's a game; my voice accompanies the gamers, and we play together," Cadol said. "Tomb Raider has been followed by a lot of people over the years; for them, it's a betrayal, a total disrespect. They are angry."
• The actor has since thanked fans for their support and informing her of the AI use. "I call them the guardians of the voices," she said. "Very quickly, these buyers of the compilation realized that the voice of Lara Croft, who gives gameplay instructions, was not mine. It caused a real uproar among the community."
• Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be an isolated incident, as Brazilian actor Lene Bastos was also informed by fans that her performance as Lara Croft was also combined with AI-generated voice lines. This prompted Aspyr to issue an apology to her and promise to remove the use of AI in a future patch, but players believe that there are still similar cases in other versions of the game.

More gaming news:

• Ubisoft's CEO has stated that the publisher intends to place more of a focus on multiplayer when it comes to future Far Cry titles.
• Dambuster Studios has teased that a new Dead Island game is in the works.