Hollywood often faces criticism for using AI to change voices, and Netflix’s latest controversy involves recreating the voice of murdered travel vlogger Gabby Petito.
Gabby Petito’s disappearance in the summer of 2021 grabbed attention across the U.S., especially on social media, where TikTokers and YouTubers shared countless theories about the case. Her body was later discovered, and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, faced murder charges. He fled and eventually died by suicide. Netflix has now released a three-part documentary titled American Murder: Gabby Petito. To make the story more personal, the filmmakers used AI to recreate Gabby’s voice for reading her journal entries, a choice that many people found disturbing.
So in the Netflix documentary, they read Gabby Petito’s journal entries and texts using ‘voice recreation technology’ from her own voice and I do not think that’s okay, It’s very weird – even disrespectful maybe – and truly off-putting.
one X user wrote
Lol this gabby petito doc uses an AI to recreate her voice reading her own diary what a fucking monstrous creative decision,
yet another user posted.
The filmmakers have justified their use of AI to recreate Gabby Petito’s voice, explaining that they had her family’s permission. Executive producer Michael Gasparro told US Weekly,
We reached out to the family to get their blessing and then we worked diligently to represent it in exactly how it was written. That allowed you to hear it through her own words.
Gasparro also described AI as a way to give a voice to those who have passed. “We thought it was really important to bring that to life,” he said. “At the end of the day, we wanted to tell the story as much through Gabby as possible. It’s her story.”
The filmmakers might have a point since documentaries often use voice actors to read historical figures’ words. But this case feels different. When the documentary focuses on a recently murdered young woman and her voice is recreated by an AI program, it comes across as much more unsettling.
The makers of the Oscar-nominated film The Brutalist faced backlash after revealing they used AI to refine the actors’ Hungarian accents. In response, the Academy is now considering new rules requiring filmmakers to disclose AI use to avoid similar controversies.
Source: Gizmodo