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- The Railway Service of Scotland has replaced the voice of the human train with an AI on a number of routes
- Speech technology is powered by the Swedish company Readspeaker
- A voice actor claims that the company uses its voice without permission, but Readspeaker says it has “tackled these complaints extensively”
If you live in Scotland, or have ever visited our beautiful country and traveled on a train, you probably heard the domestic lilt of the female voice announcing station stops and other information.
Train company Scotrail, however, has now replaced the iconic voice with AI, causing commotion at commuters – and claims from a voice actor that Scotrail has stolen her voice.
The new AI broadcaster is called Iona, and the robot voice has replaced the human with which most Scots grew up. Iona has currently rolled out on routes in Scotland, but so far hostility has been received.
Hate the new Scotrail AI broadcaster voice. It sounds like a Scottish version of Space Odyssey Hal!May 17, 2025
The AI Voices uses text-to-speech technology with which Treingeleiders can introduce announcements that are subsequently spoken by IONA in the public address system.
That’s my voice!
After the first return to the AI speech role, Scotrail responded to X and said: “Give it time and it can grow on you.“
A person with whom the voice does not grow is voice actor Gayanne Potter, who accused the Scottish Train Company in the hands of the government of stealing her voice. Potter is a voice actor who has done some work for the Swedish company Readspeaker in 2021.
Readspeaker is the company behind Iona, and at the time Mrs. Potter was told that her speech work would only be used for accessibility and e-learning software.
After a friend had sent her a link to the read speaker’s website, Potter recognized the voice and noticed similarities between her own tone and that of Iona, a persona that brings Scotrail on the market as a red-haired Scottish woman, with an image that is also natural.
Mrs. Potter said to the BBC: “It’s my voice – I’m absolutely sure it’s my voice.” Potter has had a dispute with read speaker about the use of her voice for two years.
In response to the complaints, ReadPeaker said to the BBC: “Read speaker is aware of the concerns of Mrs. Potter and has tackled it several times in the past with the legal representative of MS Potter.”
In the BBC report You can listen to a comparison between MS Potter and Iona. It cannot be denied that the voices are very similar, although the real problem here is the protection of employees in the creative industry and the awareness of how they sign their rights when producing work.
Potter said: “It’s hard enough for people in the creative industry to maintain a career, but to compete with a robot version of yourself simply adds insult to injury.”
This is just the newest controversy in the debate about who owns what in the rapidly evolving world of AI. Potter says that at the time she did not know that her voice would be used to train a robot -like that is heard in Scotland. Now she can’t escape her ‘own’ AI voice.
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