Stephen Fry is shocked to learn that his voice was stolen from the HARRY POTTER audiobooks and replicated by AI for a documentary

British actor Stephen Fry he’s been in so many great movies and series, including Gosford Park, V for Vendetta AND The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxybut along with acting, his voice work is absolutely as iconic as his roles, as he is known worldwide for bringing the beloved Harry Potter book series come to life in audiobook versions of the novels. But because of his famous voice, the actor was the victim of some sort of strange theft.

Fry recently revealed at the CogX Festival (via Forbes/Variety) that his voice from Harry Potter The audiobooks were taken by AI software and replicated without his consent, and he and his agents spoke out.

“I am a proud member of [actors’ union SAG-AFTRA]. As you know, we have been on strike for three months now. And one of the hot topics is artificial intelligence,” Fry said before playing a clip of his voice narrating a historical documentary. Except it wasn’t Fry’s voice. It was an AI replica of his voice.

“I didn’t say a word about it: it was a machine. Yes, she shocked me. They used my reading of the seven volumes of the ‘Harry Potter’ books, and from that data set they created an AI of my voice, which created that new narrative. What you heard wasn’t the result of a mashup. This comes from a flexible artificial voice, where words are modulated to fit the meaning of each sentence. He could then make me read anything from a call to storm Parliament to hardcore porn, all without my knowledge or permission. And this, what you just heard, was done without my knowledge. So I heard about it, I sent it to my agents on both sides of the Atlantic, and they went crazy: they had no idea that something like this was possible.”

Fry served as the audiobook narrator for the Harry Potter series in the UK. He said the discovery of artificial intelligence imitating his voice led him to warn his agents about him: “You haven’t seen anything yet. This is the audio. It won’t be long before full deepfake videos are just as convincing.”

Artificial intelligence has become one of the focal points of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFRA strikes. Bryan Cranston gave a fiery speech to Disney CEO Bob Iger in July in which he said actors would not let movie studios take their jobs away with replicating artificial intelligence.

It seems like the unions are doing their best to address the issue before it gets out of control, but it’s absurd that some people think they can get away with stealing someone’s voice without repercussions. Hopefully the strikes will lead to a clearer resolution moving forward.

Fry recently appeared on Prime Video Red, white and royal bluenow streaming.