If there’s anyone who can best express the dark side, it’s James Earl Jones. Died on Monday The 93-year-old voiced Darth Vader in more than a dozen Star Wars films. New Hope “In Star Tours, he made the Force sound sinister and it felt fascinating. With him gone, it feels like all of the power and dignity and respect that he brought to the character is gone.”
Not really, that’s in the hands of AI.
A few years ago, Jones had a few lines as Vader. The Rise of SkywalkerHe had expressed an interest in finishing his term as a Sith Lord. According to Vanity FairLucasfilm needed a way to continue the character, particularly the version of the voice he spoke in the earlier Star Wars films, and turned to a Ukrainian company called Respeecher, which used artificial intelligence to recreate Vader’s voice based on Jones’ past performances. (The actor agreed to use his own archives to train the voice model.)
After all, Lespeacher’s work was completed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Obi-Wan Kenobiand how Vader performs in the future may depend on AI. Speaker Lucasfilm did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Jones’ death marks a pivotal moment for the future of AI-generated performances. During last year’s lengthy Hollywood actors’ strike, one of the biggest points of contention between the Screen Actors Guild-American Film Institute and studios was whether studios had to get permission to use past performances to train AI models. Ultimately, SAG won guardrails on the use of AI in performance reenactments. Now the question is how that will work for Darth Vader.
This is an interesting question, especially with regards to voice acting: a perfect recreation of a vocal may feel more advanced than a perfect recreation of the entire performance, but it also feels more moving.
When Paul McCartney used AI to create Beatles songs from tapes recorded when the band were still alive, the results were ghostly, and when OpenAI showed off a demo of its voice assistant Sky, Scarlett Johansson thought it sounded a lot like her singing voice. sheShe said she was “shocked, angry and in disbelief” that the company was “pursuing a voice that sounds eerily similar to mine.” OpenAI denied that she was the inspiration, but suspended the demo. Video game voice actors are currently on strike to protect their vocal performances. Apparently, voice is now the most valuable thing.
Ultimately, what happens to Darth Vader’s voice isn’t a question of rights (Jones gave permission), but of sentiment. Would Lucasfilm, or its parent company, Disney, produce any more Star Wars shows or movies featuring an AI Vader after Jones’ death? Would people respond favorably to it? Is there a point at which fans will give up on a character as iconic as Vader?
from Audrey Hepburn sells Dove chocolates To hologram tupacPosthumous performances have been a part of pop culture for years. But unlike Audrey and Pak, Jones is on board with the plan, apparently being the first celebrity to allow an AI to recreate his iconic figure while he was alive. How well the AI ​​Darth Vader is received will depend on how it’s handled. A Darth Vader feature film may not be as warmly received as a Force ghost cameo or flashback. The test will be how well the character is received now that the man behind it is gone.
