Award-Winning Journalists and Narrators Sue Google Over Alleged Voice AI Training - PYMNTS.com
Award-winning journalists and narrators are suing Google, alleging the tech giant used their voice recordings without permission to train AI systems.
- Incident date
- May 2026
- Target
- Carol Marin, Yohance Lacour, Alison Flowers, David Greene
A group of journalists, podcasters, and audiobook narrators has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging unauthorized use of their voice recordings for AI training. The lawsuit claims Google used professionally recorded speech to develop AI models for products like Google Assistant and Gemini Live.
What happened
The plaintiffs, including journalists Carol Marin, Yohance Lacour and Alison Flowers, allege that Google collected voice recordings from publicly available online sources. They argue this was used to improve Google's AI voice technology without their consent, violating their publicity rights and Illinois biometric privacy law. The plaintiffs' recordings reportedly fit the profile of optimal training audio, being long-form, single-speaker, studio-quality, and professionally produced. The group is seeking unspecified damages. Former NPR host David Greene filed a similar suit against Google in January.