In a suitably cyberpunk twist, CD Projekt Red used AI to replicate the voice of Polish actor, Miłogost Reczek, who passed away in 2021 for his character’s appearance in the recent Phantom Liberty expansion of Cyberpunk 2077. Notably, this course of action was taken with the consent of Reczek’s family, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Reczek played ripperdoc Viktor Vektor, who appears in several main and side quests throughout Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red initially considered replacing him for the expansion and re-recording his lines in the original game, but “we didn’t like this approach,” said localization director Mikołaj Szwed. The use of AI provided a way to “keep his performance in the game and pay tribute to his wonderful performance as Viktor Vektor.”
The developer opted for the more controversial route as a means of paying respect to the actor, with Szwed calling him “one of the best Polish voice talents.” And it seems like the team took the most ethical route possible with this nascent technology, hiring another voice actor to perform the lines, then using software called Respeecher to alter the replacement’s voice to match that of Reczek.
While CD Projekt Red seems to have ticked all the boxes in ensuring its use of AI software was above board in Cyberpunk 2077, it’s a fraught field. The rise of ChatGPT and similar programs is contested by many, including several authors who have sued OpenAI, claiming that their copyrighted works have been stolen and used to train the underlying language models.
It was also one of the issues at the heart of the recent writers’ strike that brought Hollywood to a crashing halt, though the writers have since won protections against the use of AI in productions. However, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) recently authorized a video game voice actors’ strike, with the exploitative, unregulated use of AI again one of the flashpoints.
