The Skyrim modding community is currently embroiled in its own deepfake porn controversy, with popular modding site NexusMods and AI voice-cloning technology at its center. Ahead of the release of Bethesda’s upcoming space epic, Starfield, and the belief that the game will be a sort of Eden for the modding community, those against the use of AI-generated pornographic mods are stressing the importance of policing this kind of content, especially when it comes to getting consent from anyone whose biodata was used to create the AI mod.
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Inserting characters, adding voice lines, and changing appearances through modding has been possible since Skyrim’s original release back in 2011. Bethesda’s open-world RPG is already infamous for being a playground for erotic content that allows players to pose and dress NPCs as they see fit. Advancements in AI technology, however, have expanded what players are capable of importing into their games. Recent mods (of which there are dozens) use voice-cloning tech from companies like ElevenLabs to mimic the voices of existing Skyrim characters to act out scripts written by the modders, making characters like Frea the shaman and Illdi the bard willing participants in a variety of sexual encounters. Of course, while these are fictional characters, they are voiced by actual people–and that’s where the issue lies.
The Skyrim AI deepfake controversy
Many of the pornographic voice line mods also include or link to visual overhaul mods for the characters (who are almost exclusively women), in order to make them look more realistic or, in many cases, bustier.
I’ve seen some of these mods in action, and they certainly don’t come close to portraying a realistic sexual encounter—the wooden line delivery of the AI-generated voices are yet another reminder that AI cannot and should not replace real people—but that doesn’t make the existence of such mods any less problematic.
Robbie, the Twitter user who brought attention to these mods (himself a Skyrim modder), claims that voice actors who reached out to NexusMods, the biggest repository of mods for games like Skyrim, were able to get the content related to them removed. Kotaku asked for confirmation via email, and Robbie sent a link to a mod called Valerica, Lust of a Mother.
The mod originally stated that “Currently all content is voiced using A.I. software, and I have a lot of respect for the voice actors. If they contact me and want this to be taken down since it uses their voices as a baseline, I will do so and re-upload a version which is either unvoiced or uses a similar-sounding voice sample.” An addendum reads, “Due to the actions of the reddit community, I have unfortunately had to take down the voiced versions of this mod in order to allow it to remain on the nexus.”
Robbie claims that himself and others reached out to Valerica’s voice actor, Cindy Robinson, to bring her attention to the mod, and that she said she’d request to have it removed. Kotaku reached out to Robinson for comment and she confirmed they personally reached out.
NexusMods, said in an April 2023 statement “AI-generated mod content is not against our rules, but may be removed if we receive a credible complaint from an affected creator/rights holder.” The stance has proven controversial, especially because AI-generated mods are currently active on the site. Kotaku reached out to NexusMods for comment.
The testy situation has led the community to start having conversations about what happens next. Robbie wrote a Reddit post in the Skyrim mods subreddit drawing attention to the pornographic mods and arguing for their removal—it quickly became the site of intense debate before it was locked by moderators. Some complained that the original post was breaking Reddit’s Terms of Service by “encouraging people…to brigade another website,” while others pointed to a perceived lack of outrage against the traditional technique of splicing “vanilla” voice lines to generate explicit content as an excuse to dismiss the current controversy.
The original post also referenced ElevenLabs’ Terms of Service, which allegedly requires people who use the software to obtain consent to “upload and clone” voice samples. ElevenLabs does require those who use its voice cloning technology to be paid subscribers to its service, in an effort to mitigate using it for nefarious reasons—but it’s clear that this hasn’t stopped people from using the technology to make explicit content. Kotaku reached out to ElevenLabs for comment.
Voice actors took to Twitter to express their anger, frustration, and, in many cases, disgust. Aggretsuko actor Ben Diskin pinned a tweet to his Twitter timeline asking people to let him know if they saw his voice on such websites. “I don’t agree to having my voice/s being turned into synthetic voice clones without my absolute, clear, specific and undeniable consent,” he wrote. Diablo IV voice actor Ryan Laughton called the practice “wrong on every level.”
The National Association for Voice Actors tweeted that “the damage to voice actors and game companies by AI and synthetic voices is real and tangible” and behooved Bethesda and parent studio ZeniMax to “help” as “the voice actors don’t have the legal ability to fight this.”
Skyrim players and onlookers chimed in, as well, with many expressing disgust at the prospect of their voices being fed into an AI generator that would spit out explicit content. “If someone used my voice to produce AI generated content without my consent, I would be fucking livid. If someone used my voice to produce pornography without my consent I would be calling the police immediately to have that person and whatever site hosted that material fucking obliterated,” wrote u/robbobert01.
Kotaku reached out to Bethesda for comment.
Update 07/05/2023 at 4:55 p.m. ET: Added to include information regarding the removal of an AI-generated voice in a mod.
Update 07/05/2023 at 5:15 p.m. ET: Added to include confirmation from Cindy Robinson.