• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Google and Meta are urging federal judges to dismiss lawsuits by book narrators and others who allege that their voices were used to develop artificial intelligence systems or other voice-related technology.

In separate motions filed last week, both companies contend that cases should be thrown out for numerous reasons including that, according to the companies, the plaintiffs failed to allege the kinds of facts that, if proven true, would show their voices were actually used by the tech companies.

"At bottom, plaintiffs allege only that Google trains AI models on publicly available YouTube content to which Google has a license, and that such training allows Google to create AI voice products that speak in a natural way, but not like any particular plaintiff," Google argues in papers filed with U.S District Court Judge April Perry in the Northern District of Illinois.

"What is missing from plaintiffs’ complaint is any non-conclusory factual allegation that Google extracts plaintiffs’ voiceprints or produces an AI voice that the public recognizes as any plaintiff’s voice," Google adds.

Meta makes a similar argument.

"Plaintiffs’ claims are premised on the unsupported assertion ... that Meta 'ingested' recordings of their specific voices in training the challenged AI models," the company argues in a motion filed with U.S. District Court Judge Steven C. Seeger, also in the Northern District of Illinois. "But Plaintiffs identify no facts to support this key supposition."

The companies' papers come in response to lawsuits filed earlier this year, when a group of book narrators, broadcasters and podcasters -- including Peabody award winner Carol Marin and Murrow award winner Philip Rogers -- claimed that the tech companies violated Illinois laws.

The complaints centered on two major claims. One is that the companies allegedly violated a state privacy law that requires companies to obtain residents' consent before collecting voiceprints and other biometric data that's used to identify people.

The other key claim is that tech companies allegedly violated an Illinois "right of publicity" law that empowers residents to control the commercial use of their voices.

Marin and the other plaintiffs typically alleged based on "information and belief" that their voices were used by the tech companies, but also acknowledged in the complaints that the companies haven't revealed the precise sources of voice-training data.

The plaintiffs also sued other tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. They are expected to also seek dismissal of the complaints.