Earning a six-figure salary, the unnamed star was one of the biggest voiceover talents in Australia, but he now drives an Uber to pay his mortgage, his bills and support his lifestyle.

Producers for an animated series cancelled all the contracts for a group of voiceover artists after they discovered AI-generated voiceovers were faster and cheaper.

According to one leading Australian talent agency, demand for voiceover actors dropped by 80 per cent in the past year, with fears the job may not exist at all in 24 months.

Hunter Talent boss Adam Jacobs says there’s been a huge post-pandemic digitisation of Australia’s talent industry, including the burgeoning use of AI.

“AI can produce computer-generated background extras and I anticipate within the next 24 months, it will be cheaper to use computer-generated background extras over human background extras,” he says.

More brands are also interested in buying digital licenses for AI-generated images of models, he said.

“The other profoundly interesting use is people wanting to buy and use digital licenses from modelling shoots.

“When talent is doing a shoot, some brands want to buy the rights to those images to run it through an AI photo generator and use it for their next campaign, without the talent having to come in for the shoot.”

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance released a report last month saying 56 per cent of its members were “extremely concerned” about the rise of AI.

Federal president Michael Balk said there was great unease from members about the rise of AI technologies, their potential to devalue the original work of artists, creators, and journalists, and to mislead and misinform audiences.

“Artificial Intelligence presents the most profound change in the relationship between work and production since the advent of the internet,” he said.

“If left unchecked, the increased use of AI tools poses a profound threat to the credibility and authenticity of artistic and media content presented to audiences, undermining public trust, along with the loss of jobs and the degradation of conditions in creative and journalistic work.”

Judy Garland can now narrate whatever you want. Photo: Getty

The latest figures come as text-to-speech AI startup ElevenLabs introduces a free reader app that uses AI cloning to replicate the voices of Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier.

The company worked with the estates of the stars to develop the technology.

Announcing the app on July 3, business news website Entrepreneur said it took any PDF file, article or text and transformed it into a voiceover that sounded like one of the iconic voices – “complete with emotion and contextual understanding”.

Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, saw the positive.

“It’s exciting to see our mother’s voice available to the countless millions of people who love her.

“Our family believes that this will bring new fans to mama.”

One reviewer was sold immediately: “As a legally blind user this is a dream come true. ElevenLabs has by far the most natural sounding computer voices and to be able to paste in any text and have it read by my favourite voices is beyond compare.”

Downloading the app takes about two minutes. Within five minutes, you can also craft a lifelike voice or clone your own in one of 26 languages … from a young male with a British accent to an old woman with a Nigerian accent.

Who needs humans for your next project?

Entrepreneur also points out the malicious side of voice-cloning – “deep fakes” – and companies like ElevenLabs now put cloning behind a pay wall.

The ethics came under scrutiny in May when Scarlett Johansson took legal action against ChatGPT-maker, OpenAI.

The voice of Johansson, who famously voiced a fictional, and at the time futuristic, AI assistant in the 2013 film, Her, was allegedly used in its newest ChatGPT model, and was “so eerily similar” to hers that her “closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.”

Auditions were once integral to an actor getting the role … now AI looks after that. Photo: Getty

‘Real trouble’

Jacobs issues a warning: “If you’re unaware of AI right now in the entertainment industry,  you’re in real trouble.

“AI is revolutionising the talent industry by making processes more efficient and data-driven. It assists in casting decisions, trend analysis, and even in the creation of virtual talent.”

He said it was helping to streamline the casting process with a huge shift to virtual auditions.

While video submissions have made it easier for talent to audition from anywhere in the world, it’s widened the reach for both talent and casting directors, allowing for more opportunities and competition.

Video submissions now make up 90 per cent of auditions.

“Pre-Covid video submission was around 20 per cent of your first and second-round auditions, but now video submissions are 90 to 95 per cent of all auditions,” Jacobs said.

“This is because casting teams can screen more talent with less effort on their behalf.

“AI helps in sorting and matching talent with suitable roles, managing schedules, and even predicting trends in the industry.

“AI will save the talent industry in the short term and kill us in the long term.”