{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-22T10:16:24.873Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"livelihood","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2023","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2023-china-voice-actor-says-ai-clones-of-his-voice-cost-him-bookings-and-led-platforms-to-flag-his-real-recordings","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The first warning came in 2023, when a friend sent him a four-minute video introducing a Chinese actress in a voice that sounded like his.; hears what sounds like his voice narrating movie explainers he never recorded, reading sports news, promoting products, peddling conspiracy theories, and even swearing in short videos circulating online.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A voice actor who narrates film-explainer videos on Douyin says that since 2023 voices that sound like his have narrated videos he never recorded, including movie explainers, sports news, product promotions, conspiracy theories and swearing.","causal_attribution":"The actor's account relayed by Sixth Tone; the resemblance is his and his acquaintances' identification."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"he has found sellers offering what sounds like his voice in downloadable packages, as well as editing apps that allow users to select it and generate new recordings.; In one livestream, a presenter demonstrated an app that could generate voiceovers from text in a few clicks. Using a demo voice that sounded strikingly similar to his, the presenter turned a script into a movie explainer narration","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Sixth Tone reports that the actor has found sellers offering what sounds like his voice in downloadable packages and editing apps that let users select that voice and generate new recordings, and describes a livestream in which a presenter used a demo voice strikingly similar to his to turn a script into a movie-explainer narration.","causal_attribution":"Sixth Tone's account. The tools described generate speech from text, which establishes AI generation; that the generated voice was derived from his recordings has not been forensically established."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Then the bookings began to fall.; By 2024, former collaborators stopped hiring him and turned to AI-generated voices instead. Others offered to use an AI version of his voice at a much lower rate.; Their income no longer covered their living costs","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The actor says that by 2024 former collaborators stopped hiring him and turned to AI-generated voices, others offered to use an AI version of his voice at a much lower rate, and his household income no longer covered living costs.","causal_attribution":"The actor's account relayed by Sixth Tone; no client is named and the share of lost work due to clones of his voice, as against AI voices generally, is not stated."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"For his clients, a mistaken label can mean fewer recommendations, fewer views, and less income.; When platforms flagged his recordings as AI-generated, the videos could be excluded from recommendation feeds, cutting views and earnings.; the more often he has to prove that his own recordings are real.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"From 2025 platforms flagged some of his real recordings as AI-generated, which could exclude videos from recommendation feeds and cut views and earnings for his clients; he has had to record videos proving that he is human.","causal_attribution":"Sixth Tone's account; how the platforms decided to flag the recordings is not described, and one platform agent is quoted assuming the voice was AI because it was so common."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"sometimes asking to borrow money; A few removed their videos; most ignored him. Others responded with abuse.; I go through the same cycle,; First fury, then helplessness, and finally disappointment.; has struggled to sleep and has begun smoking more","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Friends and relatives who sent him the clips sometimes asked to borrow money on the assumption that he had become rich, uploaders he contacted mostly ignored him and some responded with abuse, and he describes repeated fury and helplessness at hearing the AI version and has struggled to sleep.","causal_attribution":"The actor's account relayed by Sixth Tone; no clinical assessment is reported."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"the defendant sought to transfer the case to a court in another city.; To succeed, he would first need to establish a clear chain of evidence showing that the synthetic voice was derived from his recordings.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He took the matter to court; before the first hearing set for 2 July the defendant sought to transfer the case to a court in another city, and Sixth Tone says he would first need to show that the synthetic voice was derived from his recordings.","causal_attribution":"Sixth Tone's account; the defendant, the court and the claims are not identified."}],"effects":[{"label":"lost bookings and income attributed by the actor to AI clones of his voice","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"real recordings flagged as AI-generated, cutting clients' reach","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"distress, lost sleep, abuse and money requests linked to the clips","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1018753/the-chinese-voice-actor-forced-to-prove-he%E2%80%99s-human","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English feature of 10 July 2026 read in full on 2026-10-22 by the research agent (an AI) (HTTP 200); no translation required. Sixth Tone interviewed the actor and his wife, visited him and quotes lawyers; Chinese-language originals were not looked for.","independence_group":"sixthtone-voice-actor-feature"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["Which tools, apps and sellers generated or sold the voice resembling his.","Whether forensic voice analysis or a court has found that the synthetic voice derives from his recordings.","How the platforms decided to flag his real recordings as AI-generated.","The defendant, court and outcome of his lawsuit.","How much of his lost work is due to clones of his voice as against AI voices in general."],"geography":{"basis":"The article places the actor's work in a Douyin film-explainer channel and describes his lost bookings in China's short-video and ultrashort-drama voice market; the court in his lawsuit is not named, so no court country is recorded.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["CN"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as an ongoing adverse experience: Sixth Tone reports that AI text-to-speech packages and apps generate recordings in a voice resembling a working voice actor's, and the actor attributes lost bookings, lower rates, platforms flagging his own recordings and distress to those clones. The account is attributed to the actor and the forensic question is recorded as open.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Sixth Tone reports that voice packages and editing apps let users select a voice resembling the actor's and generate new recordings from text, and describes a livestream in which an app turned a script into narration in that voice. Those AI-generated recordings imitate him, and he says they led former clients to stop hiring him or offer lower rates and led platforms to flag his own recordings as AI-generated. That the generated voice derives from his recordings rests on his and acquaintances' identification; no forensic analysis is reported.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"Chinese voice actor says AI clones of his voice cost him bookings and led platforms to flag his real recordings as AI-generated","summary":"Sixth Tone reported on 10 July 2026 that a voice actor in Jiangsu province, who narrates film-explainer videos on Douyin, has found voices that sound like his narrating videos he never recorded since 2023, including sports news, product promotions, conspiracy theories and swearing. According to the report, sellers offer what sounds like his voice in downloadable packages and editing apps let users select it and generate new recordings from text. He says that by 2024 former collaborators stopped hiring him and turned to AI-generated voices, others offered to use an AI version of his voice at a much lower rate, and his household income no longer covered living costs. From 2025, platforms flagged some of his real recordings as AI-generated, which could cut his clients' views and earnings, and he has had to record videos proving that he is human. Friends and relatives asked to borrow money, uploaders mostly ignored his requests and some abused him, and he describes fury, helplessness and lost sleep. He has taken the matter to court; Sixth Tone says he would need to show that the synthetic voice derives from his recordings, which lawyers said could require forensic voice analysis. The account is the actor's, relayed by one outlet; no court finding is reported.","incidentDate":"2023-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-07-10","aiSystem":"Unidentified AI voice-cloning and text-to-speech tools, including downloadable voice packages and editing apps that let users select a voice resembling the actor's and generate new recordings","aiProduct":"Unidentified voice-cloning tool","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm","financial_loss","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The actor says AI clones of his voice led former clients to stop hiring him or offer lower rates, cut household income below living costs, led platforms to flag his real recordings as AI-generated, and caused fury, helplessness and lost sleep (his account relayed by Sixth Tone).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One voice actor whose voice is reported cloned. His wife's work on the complaints and other voice workers in the article are not counted: the wife's harm is not separately reported as caused by clones of her voice, and the other workers describe different events.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"CN","platformType":"other","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1018753/the-chinese-voice-actor-forced-to-prove-he%E2%80%99s-human","primarySourceLabel":"Sixth Tone, 10 July 2026: The Chinese Voice Actor Forced to Prove He’s Human","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-22T03:04:58.68553+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T03:04:58.68553+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["voice-cloning","voice-actor","livelihood","workplace-ai"]}]}