Nipponainei, an association consisting of actors and voice actors working in Japan, has announced voice usage guidelines to protect their rights and interests ahead of legislation.

Nipponainei officially announced the voice-related generative AI usage guidelines on the 15th. Revealed during a press conference held at Tokyo Geinokadensha, these guidelines were prepared to protect the rights and dignity of actors and voice actors from rapidly developing AI technology, and to present safe business indicators for related businesses such as production companies and developers.

While Japan has enacted portrait rights laws to protect a person's appearance, including their face, a bill to protect human voices has not yet been established. In this situation, cases of unauthorized voice duplication and the unauthorized collection, learning, and utilization of actual voice actors' audio data using AI dubbing technology are increasing.

The newly announced guidelines were designed to minimize damage to providers and users, consisting of a total of four tasks. Nipponainei explained the background of the guideline announcement, stating, "Waiting for legal establishment by the state is too late. Voluntary standards that guarantee transparency and fairness are necessary so that actors, voice actors, production companies, and platforms can engage in business with peace of mind."

According to the guidelines, the purpose must be disclosed and prior consent must be obtained from the voice provider across all stages, ranging from AI learning and generation to publication and usage. In addition, the act of utilizing AI-generated voices is defined as a new form of voice acting provision, and users must pay fair compensation for this. By licensing AI voices and utilizing them as a tool to generate revenue, it ensures that royalties for voices used by AI can be received to continue generating revenue.

Next, points to note when producing multilingual dubbing voices in English, Chinese, and Spanish by automatically translating original language performances with AI were presented. This is to protect the artistic identity of the performance by preventing subtle nuance distortions due to language conversion and unauthorized use in overseas regions outside the contract. In particular, multilingualization work must be accompanied by separate consent and additional cost payments, which helps businesses build a business model that legally delivers the original voice actors' voices in the process of overseas localization.

Finally, ethical standards were established for cloning technology that restores the voices of deceased actors and voice actors using AI. When proceeding with AI generation, the deceased person's wishes during their lifetime must be respected as much as possible, and strict permission from the bereaved family or manager who inherited the rights is essential. This prevents commercial exploitation by companies and insults to the deceased while providing a moral safety net to enable the succession of historical value.

Meanwhile, Nipponainei stated, "We plan not only to establish these guidelines as a rule within the industry, but also to strengthen lobbying activities targeting the government and related organizations for the legislation of voice rights."