Aoni Production and CoeFont Announce Global Strategic Partnership Leveraging AI
Popular voice actors like Masako Nozawa and Banjou Ginga to reach global markets! Multi-language AI voices to be provided for platforms such as voice assistants
okyo, Japan, October 7, 2024 — Aoni Production Co., Ltd. and CoeFont Inc. today announced a strategic partnership to expand globally using AI voice technology.
Through CoeFont’s AI voice technology, the charming voices of voice actors affiliated with Aoni Production will be translated into multiple languages, including English and Chinese. These high-quality, multilingual AI voices will primarily be offered for voice assistants (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant), robots, and products with voice navigation (e.g., Pepper, medical devices). This will contribute to the widespread adoption of voice recognition technology in the global market and to social welfare, aiming to provide more users with services featuring the familiar voices of their favorite voice actors.
Background of the Global Strategic Partnership Leveraging AI Voice Technology
With the increasing attention on generative AI in recent years, the relationship between unique voice actors and AI has come into question. Incidents of unauthorized use of voice actors’ and actors’ voices for AI training have occurred both domestically and internationally, highlighting the need for rulemaking.
Against this backdrop, Aoni Production, representing the voice acting industry, and CoeFont, which provides AI voice platform services, have agreed to collaborate. Both companies share the belief that rather than simply focusing on the threats posed by AI, they need to take the first step to enhance the potential of voices with charm, while appropriately protecting the rights of performers.
However, it should be explicitly stated that this service will not be provided for areas involving “acting,” such as animation and foreign language film dubbing. Instead, we will create multilingual AI voices excluding the “acting” domain, appropriately separating the areas of activity between AI voice technology and voice actors.
Initially, both companies will collaborate in the area of global expansion. The knowledge gained through this collaboration will not be confined within the two companies, but will be contributed to the establishment of appropriate relationships between AI voice technology and performers both domestically and internationally.
Business Development
By utilizing AI, we aim to maximize the potential and value of voices on a global scale, achieving what has been impossible for Japanese voice actors to accomplish until now through the use of multiple languages.
The charming voice data of voice actors affiliated with Aoni Production will be translated into multiple languages, including English and Chinese, using CoeFont’s AI voice technology. These high-quality, multilingual AI voices will primarily be offered for voice assistants (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant), robots, and products with voice navigation (e.g., Pepper, medical devices).
However, we will not provide services for animation, foreign language film dubbing, and other areas involving the “acting” of voice actors. We will create multilingual AI voices, including English and Chinese, excluding the “acting” domain of voices, and appropriately separate the areas of activity between AI voice technology and voice actors.
Inquiries from companies wishing to use AI voices
Please contact us if your company is interested in using AI voices.
Participating Voice Actors
In the first phase, 10 voice actors affiliated with Aoni Production will participate. The Japanese voice data will be converted into multilingual AI voices, including English, and provided. The participating voice actors will be announced sequentially at a later date.
