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Screen Forever 2024: Nine used AI for Scott Cam, Denise Scott voice-overs

When talent took ill, Nine turned to technology with "scarily accurate" results.

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Nine has used AI for TV shows simulating The Block‘s Scott Cam and Travel Guides‘ Denise Scott.

Speaking yesterday at Screen Forever, Nine Head of Content Production & Development Adrian Swift confirmed Nine had used AI for short sports packages, which would increase with the coming Olympics.

“Particularly when you’ve got an Olympics that mostly takes place overnight. We’ll use AI a lot on that,” he said.

“Our other use of AI is where we have -and I’ll mention them- Denise Scott and Scott Cam, both of whom had various kinds of colds, coughs and fevers. So for our guide voiceovers on our cuts, we used AI versions of their voices….scarily accurate!”

Swift added, “It’ll never replace the real thing, I stress. But I think it’s just a little bit of an exercise to just work through it. It was really interesting to see how close it was to the original.

“I stress again, not nearly as good as the original and the best.”

10 Responses

  2. The quote specifies “guide voiceovers on our cuts”. These never go to air. For years editors have been using their own voices for the purposes of timing during the edit process. An AI generated voiceover would give a better impression to network execs during screenings.

    2. They also said they use it now in sports packages and will use it more during the Olympics. Network screenings may be one thing (if they really need an AI generated vo to help with screenings then there’s bigger problems at hand) but if it’s used blatantly in sports, then rest assured, it’ll expand. Networks look to trim costs everywhere, and this is just the start of slippery slope.

      In the US, IATSE are looking to potentially strike in July this year for the first time in their 130 year history over concerns of being underpaid for longer hours (50-60 hour weeks worked in Aus minimum is more than the heavily unionised US) and to safeguard against AI like the actors and writers. Will Aussie unions do anything about this? I doubt it.

  3. This caused a whole shut down of industry in the US and here we are in Australia proudly using it, and committing to using it in the future. It’s a bad look.

    1. Scott Cam would be on a series fee so I suspect unaffected, unsure re Denise. There’s no indication if it was an entire episode or just smaller segments in post, so I doubt anyone gets less per episode as a result.

      1. The fee is hardly the issue – this kind of pernicious replacement of human labour and creativity always begins benignly enough. Just a few sentences etc.. That’s how it always starts. Networks want to cut costs and if they can cut human labor & switch it out for AI , that’ll keep the bonuses rolling in. This article should read as a red flag re the tv industry.

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