Lucy Wynne says she was devastated after hearing what she believes was her deceased father's voice in last Christmas' Royal Mail advert. The voice belonged to Paul Vaughan, who narrated the Paddington Bear books, BBC Horizon, and Tesco's 'Every Little Helps' slogan. Vaughan died in 2014 aged 89.
Royal Mail confirmed the voiceover was AI-generated but has not confirmed it was based on Vaughan's historical recordings. However, after campaign group Save Our Voices Now enlisted voice-pattern experts, both they and Ms Wynne claim it is Paul.
Family distress
Ms Wynne said: "I often listened to Dad's audiobooks of Paddington over the years, just to say 'Hello Dad'. But imagine my shock when his voice just popped up last Christmas." She added: "No one in my family had given anyone permission to use his voice. No one had asked. I was really upset by the whole experience."
She wrote to Royal Mail to find out how her father's voice had been revived without permission, but initially received no answer. After Save Our Voices Now intervened, Royal Mail admitted to using an AI-generated voice, which represented a saving of between £5,000 and £15,000 for the firm in not paying an actor.
Expert analysis
Prof Vincent Hughes, Professor of Forensic Speech Science, said: "There is considerable phonetic similarity between the voice in the Royal Mail adverts and that of Paul Vaughan, both in terms of segmental patterns and overall voice quality. The challenge around deepfakes is not only a legal and societal one, it's fundamentally a linguistic and scientific one as well."
Voice perception researcher Dr Nadine Lavan said: "The AI voice used in the Royal Mail ad sounds like Paul. With Lucy recognising the voice of her father, we can conclude the voice is extremely similar."
Campaign for voice rights
Save Our Voices Now claims Royal Mail outsourced an AI voice company in Prague called Fameplay, part-owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, who also owns Royal Mail. Fameplay runs through ElevenLabs, which licences recognisable voices. The campaign group claims ElevenLabs has placed Paul on its 'No Go Voice List'.
Peter Caulfield, actor and founder of Save Our Voices Now, said: "We wanted to help uncover the truth for Lucy and her family. Sadly much of the AI cloning industry is built on stolen property, which sets the precedent but what we do know is Paul Vaughan built his illustrious career with his own unique voice and delivery."
The group is demanding the UK government give every citizen legal ownership of their own voice. There is currently no UK law that stops a voice being cloned without consent, before or after death.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We understand the concerns raised and have taken them seriously. The Christmas advertisement was produced for Royal Mail by external partners and featured real actors. As is increasingly common, the voiceover was AI-generated and we were advised that it was created using prompts and was not designed to replicate any specific individual. The production partners also carried out checks and advised that these did not identify any resemblance concerns."
