AI-cloning of Lara Croft’s voice has ‘Tomb Raider’ fans and actors up in arms

PARIS (AP) — A lifelong fan of “Tomb Raider,” French gamer Romain Bos was on tenterhooks when an update of the popular video game went online in August.

But his excitement quickly turned to anger.

The gamer’s ears — and those of other “Tomb Raider” fans — picked up something amiss with the French-language voice of Lara Croft, the game’s protagonist.

It sounded robotic, lifeless even — shorn of the warmth, grace and believability that French voice actor Françoise Cadol has given to Croft since she started playing the character in 1996.

Gamers and Cadol herself came to the same conclusion: A machine had cloned her voice and replaced her.

“It’s pathetic,” says Cadol, who straight away called her lawyer. “My voice belongs to me. You have no right to do that.”

“It was absolutely scandalous,” says Bos. “It was artificial intelligence.”