Scotrail ‘fixing’ controversial use of AI voiceover, Swinney says

First Minister John Swinney has said Scotrail is “fixing” its AI train announcement system after claims it used a Scottish artist’s voice without consent. 

The train operator used Scottish voiceover artist Gayanne Potter’s recordings to create its AI announcer, Iona, but Potter insisted she never gave her permission. 

Posting on Facebook Potter said: “I discovered last week that ScotRail’s new horrible AI train announcer Iona is in fact using my voice data - and nobody told me.”

The first minister acknowledged the issue had caused “some controversy” but said he was “sure” Scotrail was “engaging with all concerned”. 

He added: “Sometimes these things need to be done with careful handling, and I'm sure that ScotRail will be doing exactly that. The transport secretary tells me that they’re fixing it, so they will be fixing it.”

Swinney addressed the issue during first minister’s questions, after being asked by Tory MSP Sandesh Gulhane if that is how the Scottish Government - which took back ownership of the train operator from Abelio in 2022 -  “supports actors”.

Potter claimed the voice data came from a job she completed with Swedish company ReadSpeaker in 2021. She believed her voice would “provide text to speech recordings to be used for translation purposes from foreign language copy pasted into their site, and as an accessibility tool for people with visual impairment”.

But she claimed was unaware that her contract allowed her voice to be sold as part of AI in the future, and has since been trying to get her data removed from ReadSpeaker’s website.

She said: “I did not know. I was not asked. I did not consent. I was not given a choice.

“Four years ago, we didn’t have the AI we use now. You cannot consent to something that doesn’t exist. You should be able to withdraw your consent at any point. Readspeaker won’t let me.”