Nvidia Sued by Journalists, Podcasters Over AI Biometric Claims - Bloomberg Law News
Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft are being sued by journalists and podcasters who allege the companies used their voices without permission to train AI, violating Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act.
- Incident date
- May 2026
- Target
- Yohance Lacour, Alison Flowers, Philip Rogers, other journalists and narrators
Award-winning journalists and podcasters are suing Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft, alleging the tech giants used their voices without permission to train AI products. The plaintiffs claim the companies violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting their unique voiceprints from publicly available recordings.
What happened
The plaintiffs allege that the companies exploited their voiceprints to create voice AI products and commercially distribute the models. The plaintiffs include Pulitzer Prize-winners, a Chicago broadcaster, and other journalists and narrators. The complaints state the companies ingested hundreds of thousands of hours of human speech and made deliberate decisions to violate BIPA to develop their voice AI tools faster. The creators argue their voiceprints are like fingerprints and cannot be recovered once stolen. They also contend that the AI voice models now compete with them in their professions, pointing to specific tools marketed for studio dubbing, podcast narration, and alternatives to human narration.