{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T14:10:29.810Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"new-york","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2020","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":1,"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":"2020-us-voice-actors-allege-lovo-sold-ai-clones-of-voices-recorded-for-research-court-lets-claims-proceed","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'In May 2020 an anonymous Fiverr user'; 'later identified by Lovo’s counsel'; 'These are test scripts for radio ads. They will not be disclosed externally'; 'Lehrman was paid $1,200 for his work.'; 'Lovo paid her $400 for her work'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Lehrman was allegedly told his voice would be used only for a “research project” while Sage was told her voice would be used only for “test scripts for radio ads”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Lovo representatives on Fiverr hired Sage in October 2019 and Lehrman in May 2020 for voice recordings, telling Lehrman they were for research purposes only and Sage that they were test scripts for radio ads that would not be disclosed externally; he was paid $1,200 and she $400.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs’ allegations as recounted by the court and relayed by the press; not tested at trial."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'alleging that Lovo used artificial intelligence'; 'as part of its subscription service under the stage name'; 'Sage discovered that Lovo had created a clone of her voice named'; 'the Berkeley SkyDeck Demo Day Spring 2020'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The actors later found Lovo was offering AI-generated versions of their voices for sale as'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The plaintiffs allege that Lovo used the recordings with its AI software to create clones of their voices, marketed Lehrman's as \"Kyle Snow\" and offered Sage's as \"Sally Coleman\" to subscribers, and used a side-by-side comparison of Sage's real and cloned voice in a 2020 investor pitch.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs’ allegations; the AI generation is the core harm alleged."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'listened to an episode of the Deadline Strike Talk podcast narrated'; 'a paid subscription to Lovo.'; 'was virtually identical to Mr. Lehrman'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The plaintiffs say they learned of the use when they heard a podcast episode narrated in part by a Lovo-generated voice, which the podcast's MIT partner confirmed was made with a paid Lovo subscription and which they and people who heard it say was virtually identical to Lehrman's voice.","causal_attribution":"Plaintiffs’ allegations, including what MIT and listeners told them."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On August 18, 2023, counsel for Plaintiffs sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovo'; 'fictitious characters'; 'had been created using the voice recordings obtained from Lehrman and Sage through Fiverr in 2020 and'; 'fully permissioned'; 'Plaintiffs dispute this'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"According to the complaint, Lovo replied to an 18 August 2023 cease-and-desist letter that the characters had been created using the recordings obtained through Fiverr, that its use was fully permissioned, and that it had removed the characters; the plaintiffs dispute the removal.","causal_attribution":"Lovo’s letter as quoted in the complaint and recounted by the court; Lovo contests that the use was unauthorised."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'OPINION AND ORDER re: 27 MOTION to Dismiss the Amended Class Action Complaint filed by Lovo, Inc.'; 'based on the use of her original voice recording, and as to Plaintiffs'; 'contract claims, New York Civil Rights Law claims, and New York General Business Law claims'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'claims for misappropriation of a voice, like the ones here, may be properly asserted under Sections 50 and 51 of the New York Civil Rights Law'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'In his July 10 decision, SDNY Judge Paul Oetken granted in part and denied in part Lovo’s motion to dismiss'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"On 10 July 2025 the court granted Lovo's motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part, letting the New York Civil Rights Law, General Business Law and contract claims, and Sage's copyright claim over her original recording, proceed, and dismissing the training-based copyright claims with leave to amend.","causal_attribution":"The court’s own order; it decides legal sufficiency, not the truth of the allegations."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'SUGGESTION OF BANKRUPTCY upon the record as to defendant Lovo, Inc.'; 'In light of the bankruptcy filing noted at ECF 65, this case is hereby stayed.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Lovo filed a suggestion of bankruptcy on 27 May 2026 and the court stayed the case on 28 May 2026.","causal_attribution":"Docket entries."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Lovo Inc., which was built to do just that, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"TheStreet reports that Lovo's bankruptcy filing is a Chapter 7 case.","causal_attribution":"A news report of the bankruptcy chapter; the bankruptcy court record was not inspected."}],"effects":[{"label":"voice actors allege their voices were cloned with AI from recordings made for promised internal use and sold without consent","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.621575/gov.uscourts.nysd.621575.45.0_2.pdf","kind":"court_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (HTTP 200). Opinion and Order of 10 July 2025; the background section recounts the amended complaint, presumed true for the motion.","independence_group":"lehrman-v-lovo-litigation"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68535780/lehrman-v-lovo-inc/","kind":"court_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (HTTP 200). Docket entries as listed on CourtListener (RECAP), latest entry 30 July 2026.","independence_group":"lehrman-v-lovo-litigation"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.silicon.co.uk/e-regulation/legal/actor-ai-lawsuit-621581","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (HTTP 200). Report of the 10 July 2025 ruling relaying the complaint and the plaintiffs’ lawyer.","independence_group":"lehrman-v-lovo-litigation"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.thefashionlaw.com/a-lawsuit-over-cloned-voices-poses-first-of-its-kind-legal-questions-over-ai/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 (HTTP 200). Legal-news analysis of the 10 July 2025 ruling.","independence_group":"lehrman-v-lovo-litigation"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/ai-voice-cloning-firm-lovo-inc-collapses-in-chapter-7-bankruptcy/ar-AA260icJ","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 by verifier mix12 (an AI agent) from MSN's syndicated copy of the TheStreet article (assets.msn.com content API, HTTP 200; the thestreet.com page returned HTTP 403). It dates the stay to 11 June 2026, which differs from the docket's 28 May 2026 entry; the docket date is used.","independence_group":"thestreet-lovo-bankruptcy"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["work","privacy","justice"],"unknowns":["When the plaintiffs first heard the podcast and when Lovo first offered each clone to subscribers.","How many productions used the cloned voices; the plaintiffs' estimate rests on Lovo's YouTube material.","Whether the voices remained available after Lovo said it removed them.","Lovo's own factual account in its briefs, which were not inspected.","The outcome of the pending motion on the training-based copyright claim and of Lovo's bankruptcy."],"geography":{"basis":"The alleged uses described include an investor pitch at the Berkeley SkyDeck Demo Day and a podcast produced with MIT, both in the United States, so the event is placed in the US. The opinion says the plaintiffs live and work in New York, recorded as the affected persons' country. The court is the Southern District of New York.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated): two named voice actors allege, in a suit whose voice-misappropriation and contract claims a federal court let proceed on 10 July 2025, that Lovo used AI to clone their voices from recordings made for promised internal use and sold the clones. One source chain, the litigation record, read in the opinion, the docket and two reports; all facts are attributed allegations.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complaint, as recounted by the court, says Lovo's AI text-to-speech software produced clones of the two actors' voices from their recordings and that Lovo sold them as \"Kyle Snow\" and \"Sally Coleman\"; Lovo's reply to the cease-and-desist letter, as quoted there, says the characters were created using those recordings, and the podcast's MIT partner is said to have confirmed that the narration was generated with Lovo. The generated voices imitated the actors (depicted_or_impersonated), and the harm alleged is that use without their consent. These are allegations the court presumed true; Lovo disputes that the use was unauthorised.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"Voice actors allege AI voice firm Lovo sold clones of voices they recorded for research use; US court lets publicity, contract and consumer claims proceed","summary":"Voice-over actors Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage allege in a proposed class action in the Southern District of New York that Lovo, a text-to-speech company, hired them through Fiverr in 2019 and 2020 for recordings it said were for internal research or test scripts, then used its AI software to make and sell clones of their voices under the names \"Kyle Snow\" and \"Sally Coleman\". According to the complaint as recounted by the court, they learned of it when they heard a podcast narrated in part by a Lovo-generated voice that they say was identical to Lehrman's, and Lovo answered their cease-and-desist letter by saying the characters were created from those recordings and that its use was \"fully permissioned\". On 10 July 2025 Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed most federal trademark and copyright claims but let their New York Civil Rights Law, consumer-protection and contract claims, and Sage's copyright claim over her original recording, proceed. The case was stayed on 28 May 2026 after Lovo filed a suggestion of bankruptcy. The allegations have not been tested at trial.","incidentDate":"2020-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2024-05-16","aiSystem":"Lovo's AI text-to-speech subscription software, which the complaint (as recounted by the court) says Lovo calls \"Generator\" or \"Genny\" and markets as able to clone real voices; the voices at issue were sold as \"Kyle Snow\" and \"Sally Coleman\"","aiProduct":"Lovo Genny (reported)","aiCompany":"Lovo, Inc.","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Two voice actors allege that Lovo turned recordings they made for promised internal use into AI clones of their voices that it sold and used commercially without their consent; a federal court let their voice-misappropriation, consumer and contract claims proceed.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":2,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"Two people, the named plaintiffs whose voices the complaint says were cloned (court opinion). The proposed voice-actor class is not counted because no other member is identified. Exact 2.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"lawsuit_ongoing","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.621575/gov.uscourts.nysd.621575.45.0_2.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Lehrman v. Lovo, Inc., S.D.N.Y. Opinion and Order, 10 July 2025 (ECF 45)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:10:32.11919+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:10:32.11919+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["voice-cloning","text-to-speech","voice-actors","right-of-publicity","lawsuit","new-york","depicted-or-impersonated"]}]}