Voice conversion and cloning: psychological and ethical implications of intentionally synthesising familiar voice identities
Carolyn McGettigan, Steven A. Bloch, Cennydd Bowles, Tanvi Dinkar, Nadine Lavan, Jonathan Chaim Reus, Victor Rosi · Journal of the British Academy · 2025
Voice identity conversion and cloning technologies use artificial intelligence to generate the auditory likeness of a specific human talker’s vocal identity. Given the deeply personal nature of voices, the widening availability of these technologies brings both opportunities and risks for human society. This article outlines key concepts and findings from psychological research on self-voice and other-voice perception that have a bearing on the potential impacts of synthetic voice likenesses on human listeners. Additional insights from speech and language therapy, human–computer interaction, ethics, and the law are incorporated to examine the broader implications of emergent and future voice cloning technologies.