- Scottish rail service has replaced the announcement voice of the human train with an AI on certain roads
- Vocal technology is fueled by the Swedish company Readspeaker
- An actor in the voice claims that the company uses his voice without authorization, but Readspeaker says that she has “treated in full complaints” these complaints
If you live in Scotland, or if you have already visited our beautiful country and have traveled on a train, you will probably have heard the female voice helping out station stops and other information.
However, Train Company Scotrail has now replaced the emblematic voice by AI, triggering a tumult among the shuttlers – and the claims of an actor in the voice that Scotrail stole his voice.
The new advertiser of AI is called Iona, and the robotic voice has replaced that of the human with which the majority of the Scottish people grew up. Iona is currently taking place on roads across Scotland, but so far, has met hostility.
Hates the new voice of SCOTRAIL AI. It looks like a Scottish version of Hal by Space Odyssey!May 17, 2025
AI voices use vocal text technology which allows train drivers to enter ads which are then pronounced through the public address system by IONA.
It’s my voice!
After the initial backlash against the deployment of the voice of AI, Scotrail replied on X, saying: “Give him time and that can grow up on you.”
A person on which the voice does not grow is the actor of the Gayanne Voice Potter, who accused the Scottish train company belonging to the government of stealing their voice. Potter is a voice actor who worked for the Swedish company Readspeaker in 2021.
Readspeaker is the company behind Iona, and at the time, Ms. Potter was informed that her vocal work would only be used for accessibility and online learning software.
After a friend sent him a link to the Readspeaker website, Potter recognized the voice, noting similarities between his own tone and that of Iona, a personality that Scotrail is marketing as a Scottish woman with red hair, with an image that is also – of course – generated.
Ms. Potter told the BBC: “It’s my voice – I’m absolutely certain that it’s my voice.” Potter has been in a dispute with Readspeaker on the use of his voice for two years.
In response to complaints, Readspeaker told the BBC: “Readspeaker is aware of Ms. Potter’s concerns and spoke them in depth with the legal representative of Ms. Potter several times in the past.”
In the BBC report, you can listen to a comparison between MS Potter and Iona. It is undeniable that the voices are very similar, although the real problem here is the protection of workers in the creative industry and awareness of the way they sign their rights during work production.
Potter said: “It is quite difficult for people in the creative industry to support careers, but be in competition with a robotic version of yourself adds an insult to the injury.”
This is only the last controversy in the debate on which has what is rapidly evolving of AI. Potter says that she did not know at the time that her voice would be used to cause a robotics heard through Scotland. Now she cannot escape her “clean” AI voice.
