The Blood of Dawnwalker's lead actor reminds us why AI will always struggle to replicate a human performance

Will de Renzy-Martin, the actor portraying Coen in The Blood of Dawnwalker, has highlighted the irreplaceable human touch in performances, contrasting it with AI-generated voice lines. In a TikTok teaser for an upcoming episode of the My Perfect Console Podcast, de Renzy-Martin explained that while AI can replicate his voice, it cannot replicate his personality or the choices he makes in the game.

He remarked, "It's not replicating my personality and the things that I do when I'm in the room, and the choices that I make, which is all the reasons that a director or a producer would want to work with me." De Renzy-Martin recalled a previous statement he made about actors being inexpensive compared to AI, stating that if AI could produce the right noises, a person to interact with it and create the desired performance would be more expensive.

The Blood of Dawnwalker faced controversy when developer Rebel Wolves used text-to-speech AI during the game's development, but ultimately, no AI-created content appeared in the final product. Other gaming companies have employed AI, such as Embark Studios, who generated voice lines for The Finals and Arc Raiders. Despite this, One Eleven Labs, a company that licenses famous actors' voices for AI-generated lines, has not used AI for Matthew McConaughey's voice in Exodus, an upcoming video game in which he stars.

De Renzy-Martin, known for his roles in various video games, including The Sinking City 2 and 007 First Light, delivered a standout performance as Coen, earning the game four stars from the reviewer. CD Projekt Red's The Blood of Dawnwalker offers a dark fantasy adventure with unique ideas, which the reviewer found immensely successful.