Artificial intelligence is, without question, one of the defining topics of 2025, and according to Entertainment Weekly, acclaimed actor Morgan Freeman is not a fan.

Much in the way AI's current omnipresence is self-evident, so too is the fact that Freeman's voice is a Hollywood legend in its own right. 

Freeman routinely ranks at the top of pop-culture listicles for the most iconic voices in Hollywood, and he's long been dubbed the "Voice of God" for his smooth, authoritative vocal performances.

Before the rise of AI, internet quotes of dubious origin were routinely attributed to Freeman for the gravitas he lent them. But now, anyone can put words in the actor's mouth convincingly. 

"In a dishonest age when truth is under siege, media attention shatters into a thousand shards of glass and nothing is quite what it seems, what could be more precious than a voice of authority?"

Those were the opening words of a recent and wide-ranging interview Freeman gave to the Guardian — and unsurprisingly, he's not happy about the ease with which his one-of-a-kind voice can be replicated for commercial or even nefarious purposes.

As the paper noted, the late actor James Earl Jones — the legend who voiced Darth Vader — consented to his voice being reproduced for future work in the Star Wars franchise. Freeman has given no such permission.

"I'm a little PO'd, you know. I'm like any other actor: Don't mimic me with falseness. I don't appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that, so if you're gonna do it without me, you're robbing me," he said.

Freeman's concern is just one of many common complaints about generative AI, which the Chronicle of Higher Education called a "plagiarism machine" in 2023.

Artists, writers, and actors have been among the most vocal critics of AI technologies trained through what creatives maintain was unauthorized access to copyrighted material. 

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However, the potential problems go deeper than alleged infringement. 

Several aspects of AI have roiled the job market fiercely. There's the issue of "AI psychosis," credible concerns about the consequences of overreliance on AI, and a recent study in The Lancet found that AI use rapidly "deskilled" doctors after just three months.

But AI's environmental impact is perhaps the most concerning. On Nov. 13, the U.N. Environment Programme emphasized that while AI could solve problems, it also strains scarce water resources, gobbles electricity, drives rates up, and releases planet-warming gases.

Freeman hinted at pursuing legal action over AI reproductions of his voice, telling the Guardian his lawyers "have been very, very busy."

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