The Simpsons star admits ‘I’m a little worried’ about being replaced
He's been with the show for 36 years.
Hank Azaria, The Simpsons star behind popular characters such as bartender Moe and Chief Wiggum, has expressed concern over AI taking his job.
The 60-year-old voice actor has been part of the 36-season-long hit adult animation since it started in 1989 and has contributed to the sound of over 100 voices.
He has brought characters like Superintendent Chalmers, Comic Book Guy, Snake and Professor Frink to life as well.
But with over three decades worth of voice acting in the bank for the Fox series, Azaria has now shared his concerns over his future on the franchise if ‘artificial intelligence will be able to recreate the sounds’.
He wrote in the New York Times: ‘The A.I. model may not know what’s funny or what timing is, but it could do a million different takes. And it could be told to do them as I would – and it might be pretty convincing.
‘So, if I’m being honest, I am a little worried. This is my job. This is what I love to do, and I don’t want to have to stop doing it.
For over 30 years he has played iconic roles like the Comic Book Guy (Picture:20thC.Fox/Everett/REX/Shutterstock) And Chief Wiggin (Picture: THA/REX/Shutterstock) The long-running actor controversially stepped back from voicing Apu in 2020 (Picture: AFF-USA/REX/Shutterstock)‘The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that the technology for making faces seem fully human is five years away. I fear that the voice equivalent is also coming.’
However, he pointed out there would likely be a notable difference that audiences could pick up on, considering the thought and work that has gone into fleshing out these hyper-specific voices.
‘He questioned: ‘If A.I. tries to recreate one of my voices, what will the lack of humanness sound like? How big will the difference be?
‘I honestly don’t know, but I think it will be enough, at least in the near term, that we’ll notice something is off, in the same way that we notice something’s amiss in a subpar film or TV show.’
Although he concedes there could be ‘upsides’ like recreating ‘Mel Blanc’s old Bugs Bunny performances’, there is a caveat.
‘I think we’ll still need someone who in his mind and heart and soul knows what needs to be done. A.I. can make the sound, but it will still need people to make the performance,’ he shared on a more hopeful note.
Adding that ‘AI would have to be alive’ to understand how to be ‘moving or funny’.
He is a multi-Emmy winning voice actor (Picture: Erik Pendzich/REX/Shutterstock) The Simpsons tackled this debate in a fakeout AI finale for the season 36 premiere (Picture: 20thCentFox/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)Of course, The Simpson has tackled the issue of AI head-on with its season 36 premiere, Bart’s Birthday, by conjuring up fake AI technology (Hack GPT) to write a finale for the series that served as satire for what the ‘perfect’ AI Simpson’s finale would look like.
As for Hank, the Emmy-winning actor’s concerns join a long-running debate within Hollywood over the nature of AI use – and was a key issue during the 2023 actors and writers strikes.
Just earlier this month Nicholas Cage warned of the use of AI during an award acceptance speech.
In an impassioned speech, he shared: ‘There is another world that is also disturbing me. It’s happening right now around all of us: The new AI world.
‘I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us.
Only recently Nicolas Cage spoke up against AI (Picture: Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock)‘That is a dead end if an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We cannot let that happen.’
Hank and Nic’s warnings come alongside a messy AI debate in the lead-up to the Oscars after the film editor behind the best picture frontrunner, The Brutalist, admitted to the use of AI software on lead star Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones’ Hungarian accents.
There were also claims of GenerativeAI use in a different sequence, which were quickly quashed by director Brady Corbet.
He then fiercely defended the use of the language software, saying that the actors’ performances remain ‘completely their own’.
The Simpsons is available to watch on Disney+ and Channel 4.
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