{"id":768907,"date":"2026-09-13T02:22:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T02:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768907\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T02:22:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T02:22:36","slug":"ai-voice-service-ordered-to-pay-mihoyo-112k-after-reproducing-the-voices-of-63-genshin-impact-characters-without-permission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768907\/","title":{"rendered":"AI voice service ordered to pay miHoYo $112K after reproducing the voices of 63 Genshin Impact characters without permission"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pudong New Area People\u2019s Court of Shanghai recently ordered an undisclosed Shanghai-based AI service provider to pay 750,000 Chinese Yuan (roughly $112K USD) in damages to Genshin Impact developer miHoYo for unauthorized use of the game\u2019s character voices (source: The Paper<\/a>). The ruling concerns a voice conversion service that allowed users to change their voices in real-time using voice packs from the company.<\/p>\n

According to miHoYo, the AI provider reproduced the voices of 63 Genshin Impact characters without permission and sold voice packs featuring those characters. It also created and published promotional videos for the service using Genshin Impact character images and animations, used modified images of the characters as avatars for the voice packs, and allowed users to preview character dialogue.<\/p>\n

miHoYo sought 5 million Chinese Yuan ($746K USD) in damages alongside an immediate injunction, arguing that these actions constituted copyright infringement and unfair competition.<\/p>\n

The AI provider countered that its voice conversion service was based on large-scale AI training models, meaning the resulting voices varied depending on the input of the user. It also argued that rights related to the voices belonged to the voice actors themselves, and that the actors should therefore be the ones to assert any such rights.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, voiceprint analysis found that the vocal characteristics from the AI service and the character voices from Genshin Impact exhibited \u201cnearly identical characteristics.\u201d Furthermore, the defendant also admitted in court that it had mixed one minute\u2019s worth of audio from a Genshin Impact character with other materials to train the voice conversion model.<\/p>\n

The court determined that Genshin Impact\u2019s character designs and in-game footage constituted artistic works\/audiovisual works, and that the defendant\u2019s unauthorized use of these elements therefore constituted copyright infringement. <\/p>\n

Additionally, it was ruled that, due to Genshin Impact\u2019s long-term operation, the character voices functioned as a distinguishing mark that allowed consumers to identify their source. It was determined that the defendant\u2019s actions exceeded the reasonable scope of imitation and constituted unfair competition (i.e., creating an imitation that could lead consumers to mistake the service for an official product). <\/p>\n

The court ultimately ordered the AI service provider to cease the infringing acts immediately and pay roughly $112K USD to miHoYo. While the first-instance judgement was handed on June 30, it recently became final after the defendant withdrew its appeal.<\/p>\n

Related: MiHoYo to shut down its AI-powered \u201cvirtual girlfriend\u201d simulator BSide: Olivia Lin less than two months after launch<\/a><\/p>\n

Evangelion and Danganronpa star Megumi Ogata says she is \u201cheartbroken\u201d over unauthorized AI voice generation. \u201cWhy can\u2019t Japan establish content guidelines?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pudong New Area People\u2019s Court of Shanghai recently ordered an undisclosed Shanghai-based AI service provider to pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,223887,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-768907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-news-global","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}