Declining income, no consent: AI eats into Korea’s creative, language workforce

It is a familiar sound: the brisk, slightly metallic voice at the end of a TV shopping segment, rattling off legal disclaimers. For many voice actors, that sound now means a lost livelihood and a warning of what may come next. Instead of hiring a professional, companies now pick a digital voice and just start typing. “That used to be our work,” Choi Jae-ho, head of the Korea Voice Performance Association, told The Korea Times. “Now they go into a system, download a voice they like and type in the script. That work is simply gone.” Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the most powerful new colleague — and competitor — for Korea’s creative and language professionals, from voice actors and webtoon artists to interpreters. It is cutting deep into some people’s incomes, quietly erasing entry-level jobs and forcing unions and associations into emergency talks on how to protect their jobs, even as many professionals say it is also making their best work faster and better. Few professional groups have felt the shock as viscerally as voice actors. Choi says the average income

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