Voice actress Erica Lindbeck has deleted her Twitter account, following harassment by AI Art fans over an “AI cover” featuring Futaba from Persona 5.

It all started with one fan who’d uploaded an “AI cover”, that is to say, a voice impersonation of Lindbeck singing the song Welcome to the Internet.

Given seeing your voice used against your will is naturally quite a violating experience, Lindbeck as well as other figures in the industry spoke out against it, asking for the cover to be taken down.

It should be noted that since she has deleted her Twitter account, her comments on the matter are currently unavailable, though the many tweets in support of her are.

“To the person who stole my friend’s voice, fuck you. Delete this shit and never do this again“, writes fellow voice actor Ben Diskin.

While the original uploader of the video complied with the requests and took it down, AI Art enthusiasts believed it their right to use other people’s voices to say what they want, and began harassing her while also re-uploading the video.

Despite Erica Lindbeck having deleted the account, fans and friends have rallied in support of her, shaming the AI Cover supporters for their actions.

“Correction – you’d understand her side if you had anything resembling empathy. Jesus you guys ran Erica Lindbeck off twitter. One of the nicest fucking people. Be ashamed”, writes YuGiOh The Abridged Series creator LittleKuriboh.

AI Advocates- Fans Or Vultures?

AI discussions have become a central part of discourse in nearly every creative industry- on the business side, sites like Jezebel and Gizmodo are dealing with corporate interests who see the tool as a way to cheap out on paying for writers.

This extends to the Writers Guild of America, who have regulating the use of AI among the terms of their ongoing strike, while huge companies like Disney use the technology for shows like Secret Invasion.

On the fan side, there’s also the case of bodily autonomy- if an says they don’t like what you’re doing with their work, that boundary needs to be respected, especially when it’s something as personal as a voice.

The harassment Lindbeck faces also shines an ugly light on the nature of AI advocates- despite being “fans” enough to want to use Lindbeck’s voice, there’s an alarming lack of respect when she uses it herself to tell them to stop.