Hollywood star Morgan Freeman has said the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to replicate a voice is an act of “stealing”.
The award-winning actor, 89, is best-known for starring in prison drama The Shawshank Redemption, a role which cemented him as one of cinema’s most recognisable narrators.
Amid a rise in technology used to replicate famous voices and create deepfakes, Freeman said those targeted may need to turn to the law.
He told ITV News: “On the one hand, it’s pretty nice.
“On the other hand, it’s stealing.
“Get lawyers.”
He went on to acknowledge the difficulty in finding out “where it originated” as deepfakes and AI-generated content continues to be churned out.
Freeman has also been on a mission to save blues music and is a co-owner of blues club Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Mississippi, which he helped set up after two backpackers asked him where they could listen to blues in the area.
He recently produced an album alongside the British Chineke! Orchestra and said if they were to win a Grammy it would “spike my good feeling”.
Reflecting on the genre and his ambition to keep it alive, he said: “A lot of times that’s what makes a resurgence. You see it, you connect it, and it’s back.
“The blues itself is a lament. It’s pain. It’s the expression of loss and want.
“That’s the blues.”
He went on to call the success of the 2025 Academy-award-winning film Sinners, which used blues music to explore the supernatural horror film’s themes, as a “powerful moment”.
He added: “There are corners where it is nourished and sooner or later it’ll sprout, like now.”
During his career, Freeman won a best supporting actor Oscar for Million Dollar Baby and is also known for roles in Driving Miss Daisy (1990) and Invictus (2009).
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