The Finals criticised by actors and designers for use of AI commentator voiceovers
Forthcoming team shooter The Finals has been criticised for using AI for its commentator voiceovers.
Developed by Embark Studios, comprising former DICE employees, it's currently in open beta — as announced at the recent Xbox Partner Preview showcase.
As part of its arena battle style, it includes voiceover from two commentators, but these have been developed with AI drawing criticism from voice actors and designers alike.
The use of AI in the game was actually revealed in an episode of Embark's Meet The Makers podcast from July. Audio designers Carl Strandberg and Andreas Almström were asked about the voiceovers which were described as «authentic».
«So here's the kicker: what did the voiceovers,» said Almström. «We use AI with a few exceptions. So all the contestant voices like the barks, both of our commentators are AI text-to-speech. For things we call vocalisations like player breathing, vaulting, jumping, that's something we use us in the studio to record, like just grunting. We can't really get AI to perform those kinds of tasks yet.»
He continued: «The reason that we go this route is that AI text-to-speech is finally extremely powerful. It gets us far enough in terms of quality and allows us to be extremely reactive to new ideas and keeping things really really fresh. For instance if a game designer comes up with a new idea for a game mode, we can have voiceover representing that in just a matter of hours instead of months. We don't have to do temp recordings that need replacing.
»I think we're really coming into a new dawn when it comes to video game voices. And if it sounds a bit off, it still blends kinda well with the fantasy of the virtual game show aesthetically."
Now that the beta is available, clips
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