An Israeli voice actor and broadcaster is suing Apple for NIS 250,000 (some $66,000) in damages, alleging illegitimate use of her voice in the Hebrew version of Siri, the US tech giant’s virtual assistant program.
Galit Gura-Eini claims the US giant did not obtain proper permission to use her voice when Apple launched Siri in Hebrew in 2016, and that her voice likeness has been used to make sexist, racist and violent references, Israeli business daily Calcalist reported on Friday.
Gura-Eini is the first female Hebrew voice for Israeli-founded navigation app Waze, acquired by Google in 2013 for approximately $1 billion.
According to the complaint, filed at a Tel Aviv District Court, Gura-Eini approached Apple to remove her voice from Siri earlier this year but was rebuffed.
Gura-Eini says her voice is “widely identified and associated” with her own live persona and that it has now been turned “into a vehicle for improper and humiliating speech.” She further claims that when she first recorded her voice in 2007 for the local offices of Nuance Communications, an American multinational that specializes in AI and voice recognition software, she granted rights for “legitimate” purposes only.
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Apple has denied wrongdoing and has claimed Gura-Eini does not have rights to the recordings.
“Her voice on the Siri app is nothing but syllables joined together by an algorithm,” said Apple lawyer Amir Halevy.
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