“I’m Dangerous”: Why is this animated series controversial?

While a petition launched by the French Union of Performers and professional association LESVOIX continues to gain support as it nears 130,000 signatures, concerns about the abuse of artificial intelligence in dubbing continue to grow with the release of a children’s web series called

Available from January 2024, My Little Pony: Tell Your Story, the 2nd season of the My Little Pony spin-off animated series, has gone relatively unnoticed with an average of 7,000 views per stream on YouTube.

However, fans of the project and fans of the dub quickly noticed a sharp difference in quality in terms of voices between the first season and this new burst of episodes.

“The voices were changed, the translation was literal, the French names were no longer respected, the new voices were not at all well-chosen, very mechanical and devoid of emotion, and there was no lip-synching.” User Doktor writes for an article on Le Pony Blanc.

A sudden drop in quality that led to many questions and rumors. Initially convinced that the decline was related to the new studio and/or budget constraints, several web sleuths on the scene quickly became disillusioned when they learned of the changes from series artistic director Natalie Stassi. Indeed due to the use of AI

Indeed, through Interview for RTBF radioThe actor came to speak on behalf of the BELVA (Belgian Voice Artists) Association and discussed his fear that artificial intelligence will allow companies to use his voice for purposes other than dubbing without his permission, and ultimately not being a source. Scammers.

To back up his claims, he revealed that all the artists who appeared on Season 1 of My Little Pony, including Sofia Atman, Arisha Dubois, Gregory Praet and Fabien Loria, were indeed replaced in favor of “artificial”. intelligence.

“The first season was voiced by humans, the second with morphing” he declares.

The voices changed, the translation was literal, French names were no longer respected…

This decision will be made by the company HASBRO, the result of cost cutting, which will affect all dubbing of the series, except for the English version. A choice that also condemns actor Matthieu Meunier, the voice of the character Hitch, in addition to a lack of communication from the studio during BELVA’s live performance.

The use of this technique in entertainment aimed at young audiences also concerns Natalie Stass regarding child development in the event that artificial intelligence dubbing becomes widespread.

“A child who watches a cartoon without a human soul in the voices, we can wonder what will be his emotional development. How will he know that something is touching or not? I think it is dangerous for the evolution of humanity.”

However, to this day, VF viewers and fans are adamantly against the AI ​​replacement of our actors and are outraged by the mediocre rendering heard in the example of My Little Pony.

If most of the feedback on this VF is negative and evaluates the result as “bad” or even “disastrous”, some Internet users hear the fairness of the game, which we should be afraid of, because this is only the beginning of AI and its capabilities. This is especially true for actor Jesse Dubois, who is concerned about the current level of technology.

This abusive use confirms the fears of industry agents and audiophiles, and again calls for legislation from the Ministry of Culture.

The case also comes just a year after the founding of an international coalition of more than 30 countries called UVA (United Voice Artists) by French and Dutch speakers, made up of a number of artists who work voluntarily to put pressure on politics. so that these technologies become an asset to the profession rather than a simple source of savings.

“We are not against artificial intelligence, we just want it to be regulated so that we can work in peace without fear that our voice will be taken from the Internet or some source and we will be replaced.” Natalie Stas claims.

If you want to support actors, translators, art directors and artists in general, Do not hesitate to sign the petition launched by Les Voix And share via the hashtag #TouchePasMaVF.