Hank Azaria Voices Concerns Over AI Replacing Voice Actors in 'The Simpsons'

Will The Simpsons Be Voiced By AI One Day? Hank Azaria Checks To See If His Job Is Safe

Enter your email to get Benzinga's ultimate morning update: The PreMarket Activity Newsletter Hank Azaria, the iconic voice behind some of "The Simpsons" most beloved characters, put artificial intelligence to the test to see if it could accurately replicate his voice -- and the results left much to be desired. What Happened: In an experiment with the New York Times, Azaria recorded samples of his voice, which were then fed into an AI system to generate artificial versions of his signature characters, including Moe Szyslak, the bartender. The AI-generated voices, however, failed to capture the depth, nuance, and soul of his performances. "It felt like what it was, which was just a vocal version of printed text," Azaria noted after hearing an AI-generated imitation of himself. See Also: Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show Teases Diss Track 'Not Like Us' Before Delivering The Ultimate Mic Drop Moment -- Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams, And SZA Join The Spectacle When tested with Moe the bartender's voice, the AI's attempt was even further off the mark. "It doesn't have enough gravel in it," Azaria explained. "And it's missing a lot of sounds that Moe should make." Azaria also demonstrated how voice acting is more than just vocal delivery -- it's a full-body performance. To prove his point, he acted out running dialogue while physically moving, showing how breath control and motion affect the realism of a character's voice. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It's Important: The exploration of AI in voice acting by Azaria comes amid growing interest in AI's ability to mimic celebrity voices. Last year, Meta Platforms Inc. unveiled plans to enable its AI chatbot to replicate the voices of celebrities like Judi Dench and John Cena. However, the use of AI-generated voices has sparked controversy. Technology reviewer Marques Brownlee previously accused a company of using AI to clone his voice without permission. Azaria acknowledged that AI is improving, but he remains skeptical that it can ever fully replace human creativity. He also noted that audience preferences will ultimately dictate the future of AI in entertainment. "Right now, what AI generates by itself as Moe the bartender or anything else isn't going to cut it. But if it does start to cut it, people are going to listen to it, and they're going to be grateful that it's so readily available," the voice actor stated. Photo Courtesy: Ekaterina_Minaeva on Shutterstock.com Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Apple Ramping Up Hiring For Home Robotics Team, Says Top Analyst: What's Brewing? Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

The Simpsons Voice Actor Has Penned His Fears That AI Will Replace His Work And Recreate More Than 100 Characters' Sounds; Calls It ' Just Plain Wrong To Steal My Likeness'

For nearly 36 years, The Simpsons has stood the test of time by becoming one of the longest-running TV shows in entertainment history. However, the AI boom and this technology's ability to not just generate lifelike videos of people but also recreate their voices have spooked a lot of actors and artists. One of them has voiced his concerns about being replaced by artificial intelligence but mentions that the art of lending one's sound is not enough to be replicated by this technology because it takes more than just talent to pursue and excel in this profession. Hank Azaria, who voiced the characters Moe, Chief Wiggum, and Comic Book Guy, wrote an op-ed that was published by The New York Times, expressing his sadness and worry, stating that one day, AI will replace him and the people around him who are knee-deep in this business. Azaria believes that for AI to do what it is doing is blatant theft. "I imagine that soon enough, artificial intelligence will be able to recreate the sounds of the more than 100 voices I created for characters on The Simpsons over almost four decades. It makes me sad to think about it. Not to mention, it seems just plain wrong to steal my likeness or sound -- or anyone else's." Taking the example of The Simpsons character Moe, whom readers will immediately know as the disgruntled bartender, Azaria states that the character has been in about every episode for the past 36 years and displays all kinds of emotions. To train AI to come up with a believable voice of Moe accurately is going to take a lot of work; at least, that is Azaria's take on the matter. He also mentions that voicing a character is a grueling task because it is not just the voice that is involved but a whole range of emotions, not to mention the body and soul. "A misconception about voice acting is that it takes only a voice. But our bodies and souls are involved to get the proper believability. It can be as simple as running in place if your character's running. If your character is crying, you work up real tears, real emotion." However, with the billions in capital expenditure that companies are injecting this year, it is possible that Azaria's fears will be realized much faster than previously anticipated. Meta was previously reported to have been wanting to use the voices of various artists for an AI assistant and was working up on a deal with which these performers could pocket millions for using their likeness. Then again, so much is yet to be written in stone, but it will be interesting to see how things pan out with AI use proliferates in the next couple of years.

Voice Behind Over 100 Simpsons Characters Doesn't Want AI Stealing Them

The Simpsons is sometimes an insightful satire about the absurdities of family life and the media landscape in modern America, sometimes a slapstick comedy about Homer putting his body through hell for his latest feat of stupidity, but whatever it is on any given week, the show is always anchored by its voices. Other than Dan Castellaneta, no other person has spoken life into as many characters as Hank Azaria. Recently, the man who has voiced more than 150 Simpsons characters wrote an op-ed in The New York Times explaining his fear and sorrow at the prospect of artificial intelligence potentially recreating the voices he's spent decades developing. Titled "Can Characters Come Alive Without People?" the piece by Azaria -- known for voicing memorable Simpsons characters like Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon -- lays out a possible future in which human voice actors would be replaced by artificial intelligence trained to replicate those iconic characters' voices. He explains a sick irony in the fact that his decades of Simpsons voice acting that has been enjoyed by billions of people over the show's illustrious 36-year run could essentially help train A.I. to replace him. "I imagine that soon enough, artificial intelligence will be able to recreate the sounds of the more than 100 voices I created for characters on The Simpsons over almost four decades," he writes. "It makes me sad to think about it. Not to mention, it seems just plain wrong to steal my likeness or sound -- or anyone else's." He does suggest there are aspects of voice acting that A.I. could possibly make easier. "When I know that a certain line needs a laugh, but I'm not sure how to get one, I'll try different things. I'll make a list of eight or nine ways to try it," he wrote. "The A.I. model may not know what's funny or what timing is, but it could do a million different takes. And it could be told to do them as I would -- and it might be pretty convincing." Even with that slight concession to A.I.'s benefits, he uses his lengthy op-ed to shine light on how nuanced voice acting is, and how it won't be easy to replicate without humans. To him, voice acting is more than simply reading lines, it's a marriage of someone's voice and their acting abilities. Crying real tears to give life to a character's sobs; running in place while recording lines for a character who's running; stuffing a lighter in his mouth to convey the sound of a cigar-chomping character; these are all actions Azaria has implemented to make the characters we love appeal to us on a human level. "I'd like to think that no matter how much an A.I. version of Moe or Snake or Chief Wiggum will sound like my voice, something will still be missing -- the humanness. There's so much of who I am that goes into creating a voice. How can the computer conjure all that?" The existential threat A.I. poses to actors is why certain regulations were put in place in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed after the writers and actors' strike of 2023, making actors' consent a necessity before digital replicas of their voice and likeness are created. Even with these safeguards, however, loopholes still exist where an A.I. model can be trained by using an actor's performance under certain contractual clauses. Azaria's concern is real, and his fears could be the reality of what we hear and see on our TV screens in the future. I'm sure The Simpsons episode satirizing it all will be amazing.

'The Simpsons' Actor Hank Azaria Predicts AI Will Replace Him Soon: "Seems Just Plain Wrong"

The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria is voicing his concerns over potentially being replaced by artificial intelligence. Azaria, who has voiced dozens of characters over his 40-year film and TV career, including bartender Moe, Chief Wiggum and Comic Book Guy on the long-running animated comedy, wrote about his fears in a recent op-ed for The New York Times. "I imagine that soon enough, artificial intelligence will be able to recreate the sounds of the more than 100 voices I created for characters on The Simpsons over almost four decades," he wrote. "It makes me sad to think about it. Not to mention, it seems just plain wrong to steal my likeness or sound -- or anyone else's." The Brockmire actor continued, "In my case, AI could have access to 36 years of Moe, the permanently disgruntled bartender. He's appeared in just about every episode of The Simpsons. He's been terrified, in love, hit in the head and, most often, in a state of bitter hatred. I've laughed as Moe in dozens of ways by now. I've probably sighed as Moe 100 times. In terms of training AI, that's a lot to work with." Azaria also expressed that it's more than just sound that goes into voicing a character, as "our bodies and souls" also play a big role, in addition to improvisation. "I'd like to think that no matter how much an AI version of Moe or Snake or Chief Wiggum will sound like my voice, something will still be missing -- the humanness," he added. "There's so much of who I am that goes into creating a voice. How can the computer conjure all that?" The Hello Tomorrow! actor later asked, "What will the lack of humanness sound like? How big will the difference be? I honestly don't know, but I think it will be enough, at least in the near term, that we'll notice something is off, in the same way that we notice something's amiss in a subpar film or TV show." "It adds up to a sense that what we're watching isn't real, and you don't need to pay attention to it," he concluded. "Believability is earned through craftsmanship, with good storytelling and good performances, good cinematography and good directing and a good script and good music."

Hank Azaria fears AI will replace his iconic Simpsons voices

Among the many actors who lend their voices to characters in The Simpsons, few can match Hank Azaria's impressive range. After all, we're talking about the man behind more than 100 characters in the series, a role he has maintained for nearly four decades. Despite this, he holds little hope for the future, and in a recent interview, he shared his concerns about AI. Speaking with The New York Times, Azaria specifically discussed how saddened he is by the thought that artificial intelligence will likely take over his work in the near future. "I imagine that soon enough, artificial intelligence will be able to re-create the sounds of the more than 100 voices I created for characters on The Simpsons over almost four decades. It makes me sad to think about it. Not to mention, it seems just plain wrong to steal my likeness or sound -- or anyone else's." Azaria went on to describe how easy it would be for AI to train on the vast amount of material he has produced over the years. "In my case, AI could have access to 36 years of Moe, the permanently disgruntled bartender. He's appeared in just about every episode of The Simpsons. He's been terrified, in love, hit in the head, and, most often, in a state of bitter hatred. I've laughed as Moe in dozens of ways by now. I've probably sighed as Moe 100 times. In terms of training AI, that's a lot to work with." He is far from the only figure in the industry to speak out against AI. Nicolas Cage also recently addressed the issue during his speech at the Saturn Awards, stating: "But there is another world that is also disturbing me. It's happening right now around all of us: the new AI world. I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end. If an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile, and all integrity, purity, and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can't let that happen." What are your thoughts on AI and the entertainment industry? How do you think the future looks for the acting profession?

Ha Ha, The Simpsons Has to End One Day, Right? Right??

In a moving essay in The New York Times, voice actor Hank Azaria expressed his fear that AI would one day be used to keep The Simpsons going forever. With almost 40 years of episodes under its belt, The Simpsons could provide a system with a lot of training data. What’s to stop corporations from resurrecting Azaria and the rest of the cast after death and using them forever? Nothing, of course. It’s already happening. Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin will walk around in Star Wars films as long as it's profitable. James Earl Jones signed away the rights to his voice before his death, meaning Darth Vader may never die or change. Last year The Beatles released a number one single decades after the death of John Lennon, thanks to AI. Unscrupulous monsters fed all of George Carlin’s specials into an LLM and had it spit out a middling imitation of his work. The computerized recreations are almost good. Almost. But they lack something. “If A.I. tries to recreate one of my voices, what will the lack of humanness sound like?†Azarisa said in his Times op-ed. “How big will the difference be? I honestly don’t know, but I think it will be enough, at least in the near term, that we’ll notice something is off, in the same way that we notice something’s amiss in a subpar film or TV show.†During an acceptance speech at the Saturn Awards this week, actor Nicolas Cage warned his fellow actors against signing their lives away to AI systems. “The job of all art in my view, film performance included, is to hold a mirror to the external and internal stories of the human condition through the very human thoughtful and emotional process of recreation,†he said. “A robot cannot do that. If we let robots do that, it will lack all heart and eventually lose the edge and turn to mush. There will be no human response to life as we know it. It will be life as robots tell us to know it.†Cage told the Associated Press something similar in 2024. Azaria also spoke to the seductive nature of the promise of the technology. We’d all love to hear a new Beatles album or a new Carlin special. Azaria misses Bugs Bunny. “I miss dearly Mel Blanc’s old Bugs Bunny performances,†he said. “We’ll never get them again. But maybe with A.I., we can have more of them. Maybe it would work especially well if someone like me, who is intimately familiar with the subtleties of the character, could help recreate what Bugs Bunny was doing by essentially directing A.I.†That seduction is a trap, however. Jones is dead. Cushing is dead. The Simpsons are almost 40 years old and the voices of some of the actors are giving out. The Beatles are gone. Carlin is gone. The world moves on and more art comes in to replace it. Things change. That’s good. We have the tools now to capture our pop culture icons in amber and resurrect them over and over again, forever. That’s a nightmare. One we should reject it.