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Incident 1081: Voice Actor Alleges Unconsented Use of AI-Generated Voice on ScotRail Trains

Description: Scottish voice actor Gayanne Potter alleges her voice was used without proper consent in ScotRail's AI train announcements. She claims she had agreed to limited use of her voice data by ReadSpeaker but was not informed it would be used in a synthetic voice system called "Iona." ScotRail continues to use the voice, stating the dispute is between Potter and ReadSpeaker.
Editor Notes: The timeline of this incident is partially reconstructed from public statements and media reporting. The original voice recording agreement reportedly took place in 2021; the disputed use of the synthetic voice began in July 2024 with deployment on ScotRail trains. The voice actor publicly raised concerns in May 2025, stating she had been in private dispute with ReadSpeaker for over two years. Precise contractual and deployment dates remain unclear.

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Alleged: ReadSpeaker developed an AI system deployed by ScotRail, which harmed Gayanne Potter , Voiceover artists and Individuals affected by unauthorized biometric data use.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Iona , Text-to-speech deployment in public transport , ScotRail train announcement system , Biometric voice modeling and AI-generated likeness in commercial use

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1081
Report Count
5
Incident Date
2025-05-27
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+4
'Violated': Voiceover artist demands ScotRail removes her voice from new AI announcements
Voiceover artist claims her voice is being used on ScotRail’s AI-generated announcements without permission
'Violated': Voiceover artist demands ScotRail removes her voice from new AI announcements

'Violated': Voiceover artist demands ScotRail removes her voice from new AI announcements

scotsman.com

'Stop using my voice' - New train announcer is my AI clone

'Stop using my voice' - New train announcer is my AI clone

bbc.com

Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter urging ScotRail to remove her voice from new AI announcements

Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter urging ScotRail to remove her voice from new AI announcements

news.sky.com

Actress says ScotRail’s new AI announcer uses her voice data without permission

Actress says ScotRail’s new AI announcer uses her voice data without permission

msn.com

Voiceover artist claims her voice is being used on ScotRail’s AI-generated announcements without permission

Voiceover artist claims her voice is being used on ScotRail’s AI-generated announcements without permission

independent.co.uk

'Violated': Voiceover artist demands ScotRail removes her voice from new AI announcements
scotsman.com · 2025

Scottish voiceover artist has called for ScotRail to remove her voice from its new AI train announcements system because she never agreed to its use.

Gayanne Potter, whose work also includes the "Voice of God" introductions to ITV News, sai…

'Stop using my voice' - New train announcer is my AI clone
bbc.com · 2025

A woman who believes her voice has been used to create ScotRail's new AI-generated announcement system is calling for it to be removed from trains.

ScotRail recently introduced a synthetic Scottish voice to make onboard announcements in pla…

Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter urging ScotRail to remove her voice from new AI announcements
news.sky.com · 2025

Gayanne Potter is one of Britain's most recognisable voices - behind adverts for the likes of Estee Lauder, Apple, LBC radio, and B&Q.

Now, an artificial intelligence (AI) version of her voice is being used on Scotland's nationalised train …

Actress says ScotRail’s new AI announcer uses her voice data without permission
msn.com · 2025

A voiceover artist says her voice data is being used for ScotRail's new AI train announcer without her permission, saying she feels "violated" and does not have control.

The government-owned train operator recently rolled out "Iona", an AI …

Voiceover artist claims her voice is being used on ScotRail’s AI-generated announcements without permission
independent.co.uk · 2025

A voiceover artist is claiming her voice is being used for ScotRail's AI-generated announcements without her permission, and says she feels 'violated' by the experience.

Gayanne Potter, whose voice is ITN's 'Voice of God' and the Female Sta…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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