David Greene, the longtime host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the male podcast voice in its NotebookLM tool is based on his own. Greene, who also hosts the KCRW show “Left, Right, & Center,” said friends, family, and colleagues noticed the resemblance, prompting his belief that the AI voice mimics his cadence, intonation, and filler words such as “uh.”
NotebookLM allows users to generate AI-hosted podcasts. A Google spokesperson told The Washington Post that the male voice is based on a professional actor the company hired and is unrelated to Greene.
The case highlights ongoing concerns around AI-generated voices and likeness rights. OpenAI previously removed a ChatGPT voice after actress Scarlett Johansson complained it imitated her voice, illustrating similar disputes in the AI audio space. Greene’s lawsuit raises questions about the legal protections for individuals’ voices in generative AI applications.
In related developments, Hollywood raised concerns over the unauthorized use of copyrighted characters and likenesses by ByteDance Seedance 2.0 AI video tool, reflecting broader scrutiny of generative AI’s use of real people’s voices and images.
