Highlights
- CD Projekt Red used AI to recreate the voice of the late actor Milogost Reczek in Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC.
- The studio hired another voice actor to perform new lines for Viktor Vektor and then processed them with an AI-powered voice synthesizer to sound like Reczek.
- The implementation of AI in voice acting has received mixed reactions, but the Cyberpunk 2077 fandom has not had issues with Viktor's AI-assisted voice.
CD Projekt Red used artificial intelligence to recreate the voice of Milogost Reczek in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Reczek voiced Cyberpunk 2077's Viktor Vektor in the Polish version of the game.
Reczek was a fairly prolific Polish dub actor known for a variety of roles ranging from that of Homer Simpson in The Simpsons Movie to Galion from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He was also no stranger to video game developer collaborations, with CR Projekt Red being among his most frequent clients. Prior to appearing as Viktor Vektor in Cyberpunk 2077, the actor lent his voice to numerous characters from CDPR's The Witcher trilogy, including Thaler and Vesemir.
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Following a prolonged battle with cancer, Reczek died in late 2021, aged 60. CDPR was then faced with the choice of whether to recast Viktor for the Polish version of Phantom Liberty, which already started active development at the time. Doing so would have also required replacing Viktor's lines from the base game. The studio ultimately decided against such a move after receiving permission from the late actor's family to recreate his voice using AI. To do so, the company hired another voice actor to perform Viktor's new lines in Phantom Liberty, then processed the recordings with an AI-powered voice synthesizer in order to make them sound like Reczek, CDPR Localization Director Mikolaj Szwed told Bloomberg.
Many famous voice actors have already taken a hardline stance against AI, arguing how such technology is no real replacement for performers doing their jobs. The way CDPR approached this particular implementation of AI in voice acting doesn't go against that assertion, as the studio still paid for a human performance of Viktor's Phantom Liberty lines before altering them with voice cloning software Respeecher.
The same program was recently used by Disney for recreating young Mark Hamill's voice of Luke Skywalker for The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. That particular application of Respeecher saw some pushback from the Star Wars fandom, with many fans describing the AI-synthesized voice as flat and immersion-breaking. That point of criticism was mostly aimed at The Book of Boba Fett, which gave plenty of lines to the young Luke Skywalker, thus putting Respeecher's capabilities front and center.
In contrast, the Cyberpunk 2077 fandom hasn't taken any issues with Viktor's AI-assisted voice in the Polish version of Phantom Liberty. CDPR also described Reczek's sons as being "very supportive" of the idea to recreate the late actor's voice using artifical intelligence. It is unclear whether Reczek's estate was compensated for the permission it gave to the developer.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, while the Phantom Liberty DLC is exclusive to PC and current-gen consoles.
Source: Bloomberg
