The plague of AI has been especially damaging among voice actors, whose performances are far too easily emulated by increasingly convincing AI software. After an 11-month strike over the issue, the contentious situation continues to be a serious problem in the industry, and it’s now been revealed that Peppa Pig owner Hasbro is attempting to get child actors to sign over their voice rights to AI.
In 2026 we’ve seen Stan Lee’s likeness and voice sold off to an AI company, a Yu-Gi-Oh voice actor suing TikTok for videos allegedly lifting his voice, and the voice of Mega Man dropping out of the twelfth game after Capcom refused to agree to union contracts that had clauses barring the training of AI on actors’ voices. Oh, and Amazon’s entirely forgotten Luna service has just launched a “game” featuring an AI-voiced Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But this latest move by Hasbro, as reported by The Wrap, is to write contracts for child actors that, according to the Agents of Young Performers Association, are “insisting that they agree to the use of AI thus allowing them to use the child’s voice in all commercial assets within their franchise.”
An open letter from the association, and signed by over 1,000 performers, does not name Hasbro or Peppa Pig specifically, but instead refers to “a major studio who owns the IP for an international children’s franchise producing a long running animated television series.” But as The Wrap points out, Hasbro gave a statement to Deadline saying it was “aware of the open letter circulating regarding AI clauses in children’s performance contracts,” and that it is “committed to engaging with this issue in a responsible and transparent manner.” Notably, it did not deny it was the subject of the letter.
British cartoon Peppa Pig, first created in 2004, is astonishingly popular with pre-schoolers (and, crucially, their parents) all around the world, and has a vast merchandising operation. Clearly Hasbro wishes to use the voices of its ever-changing cast of child actors who perform for the show for such toys, devices, and tie-ins, without needing to pay for the actor to return to a studio. Which is disgusting.
