Nicola Coughlan and Matt Lucas among stars backing campaign against AI voice cloning
2026-08-28
The Guardian
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UK actors including Hugh Bonneville, Nicola Coughlan, and Matt Lucas have launched the 'Save Our Voices Now' campaign, urging legal protection against unauthorized AI voice cloning. The campaign responds to rising incidents of AI-generated voice scams, with 28% of UK adults reportedly targeted, and calls for statutory voice ownership rights.[AI generated]
Why's our monitor labelling this an incident or hazard?
The article clearly involves AI systems used for voice cloning, which have directly led to harms such as scams and identity theft, affecting individuals' rights and personal identity. This constitutes violations of rights and harm to communities. The campaign and open letter represent a societal response to these harms. Since the harms are occurring and the AI system's use is central to these harms, this qualifies as an AI Incident. The article focuses on the incident and the response, but the primary subject is the ongoing harm caused by AI voice cloning and the call for legislative action, not just the response itself, so it is not merely Complementary Information.[AI generated]