\n<\/p>\n
More than 80 performers have signed the letter, with Derry Girls actress Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney saying she was “deeply worried” that the government was lagging behind.<\/p>\n
“There is a way to work alongside AI and to use it as a tool that benefits us rather than rendering us obsolete,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Our audiences want that human connection. Not AI.”<\/p>\n
As well as actors, other signatories include those working in other performing industries.<\/p>\n
That includes Scottish singer Sandi Thom, known for her 2006 hit I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair).<\/p>\n
She said she was signing the letter because her voice was “unique to me and was handed to me at birth”.<\/p>\n
“Behind that voice is the emotion, the life, the pain, the tears and joy that I’ve felt along the way,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Without creativity, we are nothing.”<\/p>\n
It comes a few months after lawyers warned UK legislation has become “unfit for purpose” because of the advancements of AI tech.<\/p>\n
“The law comes close, but it doesn’t fully protect your voice, your face or your identity,” Dr Mathilde Pavis said in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, some people – for example those who are unable so speak properly because of illness – have welcomed technology that can replicate a person’s voice.<\/p>\n Yvonne Johnson, who lost her voice due to motor neurone disease, told the BBC’s Tech Life programme<\/a> in February how having it cloned by AI had “totally blown her mind”, and brought her closer to her family, who had forgotten what she sounded like.<\/p>\n Others have gone a step further and used AI not only to replicate a person’s voice, but to create a holographic representation of them.<\/p>\n Pam Cronrath, from Washington state, used the tech to surprise mourners at her husband’s funeral, where a digital version of her deceased partner addressed those who attended his wake.<\/p>\n “I was completely impressed,” she told BBC News<\/a>. “It stayed with me.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n