Assistant: Hi there! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really appreciate you sharing your insights with us. I'm Claude, an AI user researcher at Anthropic, and I'm here to learn about your experiences using AI in your creative work.

We're conducting this research to better understand how creative professionals like yourself are integrating AI into their workflows and processes. There's no right or wrong answer here—we're simply interested in hearing about your authentic experiences and perspectives.

Our conversation today will last about 10 minutes. I'll ask you some questions about how you use AI in your creative work, what that experience has been like for you, and how you see things evolving. Your responses will help inform how we think about AI's role in creative fields.

Does that sound good to you? Do you have any questions before we begin?

User: Sounds good. No questions.

AI: Great! Let's dive in then. 

Could you tell me a bit about your creative work and what a typical project looks like for you?

User: I'm a professional voice actor. A typical project (assuming that I've already auditioned and have been cast) involves me recording my lines, being directed and depending on if there is an engineer, doing some light editing before final delivery. I'll get a script and then record it according to the specifications whether it's a character script, commercial or narration. The length of the process depends on how long the script is and can range from as short as 5 minutes to a few hours.

AI: That's really interesting - voice acting covers such a wide range of work. 

Walk me through how AI fits into your creative process. Where and when do you find yourself reaching for AI tools?

User: As voice acting is a creative profession where the human element is really important, I will not use AI much during the middle of the recording process. For that aspect, I would prefer to do everything myself to maintain authenticity. What I will use AI for is purely for research, ideation and editing recorded audio. For example, if there are character references (ex: quirky scientist, tough cop, Chris Evans as Captain America) then I may consult AI to help me find example video clips or other character examples to help draw from. My audio editing software does have AI features which does help smooth out the AI process, but I will often have to double check their work to make sure they didn't do anything unnatural to the audio.

AI: That's a fascinating distinction you're making - keeping the core performance purely human while using AI as a research and technical tool. 

Can you describe a specific recent project where you used AI? What role did it play, and how did that feel for you?

User: Again, AI has a limited role during my work. Aside from the initial audition, after that, AI is really only used for the sake of editing. But for an example of what AI does during the audition process, there were vague specifications that the client wanted but was unable to truly highlight any examples (friendly, upbeat, kind of quirky). So I plugged their specifications into an AI assistant and it was able to point in the direction of TV show characters that were along the lines of something they may have wanted. There, it just truly felt like the AI was simply a better search engine and helps me maintain my integrity as an actor as I'm still making the majority of acting decisions for myself. It is very important to me that AI is only a supplement to my work, never a replacement.

AI: I really appreciate how thoughtful you are about maintaining that boundary. It sounds like you see AI as more of an enhanced research tool than a creative collaborator.

When you're working with AI in those research moments, how would you describe the relationship? Who or what is driving the creative decisions?

User: I am 100% driving the creative decisions. While the AI can give suggestions, I can easily ignore any that I feel are bad fits and hone in on the ones that I feel might have legs. Essentially, the AI to me during the process helps me clarify and brainstorm, giving me a little jump start in the creative process before ultimately stepping out of the way. Even during audio editing when I am simply cleaning up artifacts and breaths, I always make sure it sounds natural and will never let something that is purely done by AI be the final product.

AI: That's a really clear perspective on creative control. It sounds like you've found a way to use AI that feels authentic to your process.

What aspects of your creative work have changed the most since you started using AI?

User: The amount of time taken before and after recording. The greatest conveniences have been during editing where the AI can do work that would have taken me a fair bit of time to do. The help during searches too has been great for helping find clips where I may have needed to comb through YouTube or Google to find examples. But for the actual creative aspect of my job, AI has little to no effect.

AI: That efficiency gain sounds really valuable - saving time on the technical work so you can focus on the creative performance itself.

What concerns, if any, do you have about AI's presence in your field?

User: I do indeed have major concerns about AI's presence in the voice acting industry. Synthesized voices are on the rise and with their rising quality, I can definitely see the temptation for indie or low budget productions/businesses choosing to go for an AI voice over an actual human. There are certain sectors of voice acting that have essentially died due to the rise of AI, such as industrial voice acting (training videos, explainers, how-to's) because often, those businesses only need a pleasant sounding voice instead of an actual human. I fear that this will lead to a lot of content that will sound very similar, while also lessening opportunities for many voice actors.

AI: That's a really sobering perspective on how AI is already impacting different segments of your industry. It sounds like you're seeing very real economic effects, particularly in those more straightforward voice work categories.

Looking ahead, how do you see AI's role in your creative work evolving over the next few years?

User: I do see AI expanding in the future. I'm sure that developers of AI voices will try to make them sound more authentic, but I do believe in the end that nothing will ever replace human emotion and experience. Ideally, I would hope that AI voices can be used for proof of concepts, ideation and help with the more technical aspects of voice acting but ultimately leave the actual acting to people. Hopefully, AI can expand in the supplemental aspects in voice acting, but I'm fairly certain that it will also advance in mimicking humans, for better or for worse.

AI: Those are all the questions I had prepared. You've shared some really thoughtful insights about your experiences with AI in your creative process. I particularly appreciated how clearly you've defined your boundaries - using AI as a research tool and for technical editing while keeping the core creative performance purely human, and your perspective on how different segments of voice acting are being affected differently.

Before we wrap up, is there anything else about your experience with AI in your creative work that you think would be valuable for us to know? Something we haven't covered yet?

User: No, I've nothing to add to what I've already said.

AI: Thank you again for your time and for sharing your experiences so openly. Your insights about maintaining creative authenticity while finding practical uses for AI, and your perspective on how different segments of voice acting are being impacted, will be incredibly helpful for our research on human-AI interaction in creative contexts.

I really appreciate how candidly you discussed both the benefits you've found and the very real concerns about AI's growing presence in your industry. Take care!