PARIS/BERLIN, July 30, 2025 — Their voices are famous, their faces often unknown. But today, European voice actors, like Boris Rehlinger—the French voice of Ben Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, and Puss in Boots—are on the front lines of a new battle: defending their profession in the face of the rise of artificial intelligence.
With the emergence of technologies capable of generating realistic synthetic voices and adapting them to multiple languages, dubbing professionals fear a gradual disappearance of their role in the audiovisual industry. "I feel threatened, even though my voice hasn't yet been replaced by AI," Rehlinger told Reuters. He is a member of the French initiative TouchePasMaVF, which campaigns to protect human voice acting against the ambitions of artificial intelligence.
In the studios, fears are shared. Bettina Zech, a voice actress in Munich, insists that this profession is not just about reading a text: it's about conveying emotion, intention, and nuance. However, these elements still largely elude algorithms, despite recent advances. Professionals also denounce the risk of unlimited reuse of their voices, without a clear legal framework or fair compensation.
Yet the entertainment industry is not immune to the promise of AI. With growing pressure from streaming platforms like Netflix, which are multiplying international productions, the demand for dubbing has exploded. In Europe, 43% of viewers prefer dubbed content to subtitles, according to the GWI consultancy. The dubbing market, estimated at $4,3 billion this year, is expected to reach $7,6 billion by 2033, according to Business Research Insights.
Faced with this growth, some technology companies are offering tools capable of dubbing a film at a lower cost and with unparalleled speed. They nevertheless ensure that humans remain at the heart of the process, at least to guarantee the final quality. But actors' unions are calling for urgent European regulations to regulate the use of AI, protect the rights of voice artists, and guarantee their place in a rapidly changing sector.
At a time when technology is redrawing the contours of many creative professions, voice actors remind us that they don't just lend their voices: they embody, interpret, and convey. And this, they insist, cannot be coded.
