AI Voice Service Ordered to Pay miHoYo $112,000 for Copying Genshin Impact Characters
AI Voice Service Ordered to Pay miHoYo $112,000 for Copying Genshin Impact Characters
A court in Shanghai has ordered an AI voice service to pay miHoYo 750,000 yuan, approximately $112,000, after finding that the company reproduced the voices of dozens of Genshin Impact characters without permission.
The case involved AI-generated voice packs based on 63 Genshin Impact characters. According to the ruling, the service wasn’t simply offering generic synthetic voices. It also used Genshin character images, animations and dialogue clips to advertise and sell the AI voice packs.
The Company Said the Voices Were AI-Generated
One of the key arguments from the AI service was that the voices themselves had been generated using artificial intelligence.
However, the court reportedly rejected the idea that using AI automatically made the resulting voices independent from the original material.
The court found that the generated voices were closely associated with specific Genshin Impact characters and were being commercially exploited without authorization from miHoYo.
The provider was also found to have used around one minute of Genshin Impact audio as AI training material. The resulting AI voices were considered substantially similar to the voices of the original characters.
AI Doesn’t Automatically Avoid Copyright Problems
The ruling could be significant for companies offering AI-generated character voices.
AI voice cloning has made it increasingly easy to reproduce recognizable voices using relatively small audio samples. However, this case suggests that simply generating the final audio through an AI model may not protect a company when copyrighted material was used to train the system and the resulting product is deliberately marketed around recognizable characters.
The commercial nature of the service also appears to have played an important role. The company wasn’t merely experimenting with the technology—it was selling voice packs while using Genshin Impact characters and material to promote them.
miHoYo Awarded 750,000 Yuan
The Shanghai court ultimately ordered the AI voice provider to pay 750,000 yuan in damages, equivalent to roughly $112,000.
The decision sends another warning to AI companies working with copyrighted games, characters and voice performances.
As AI voice cloning becomes more accessible, companies may find it increasingly difficult to argue that a voice is completely separate from its source simply because an AI model generated the final output.
For game publishers such as miHoYo, the ruling could also provide another legal avenue for challenging unauthorized AI services that build commercial products around their characters, dialogue and other creative assets.A court in Shanghai has ordered an AI voice service to pay miHoYo 750,000 yuan, approximately $112,000, after finding that the company reproduced the voices of dozens of Genshin Impact characters without permission.
The case involved AI-generated voice packs based on 63 Genshin Impact characters. According to the ruling, the service wasn’t simply offering generic synthetic voices. It also used Genshin character images, animations and dialogue clips to advertise and sell the AI voice packs.
The Company Said the Voices Were AI-Generated
One of the key arguments from the AI service was that the voices themselves had been generated using artificial intelligence.
However, the court reportedly rejected the idea that using AI automatically made the resulting voices independent from the original material.
The court found that the generated voices were closely associated with specific Genshin Impact characters and were being commercially exploited without authorization from miHoYo.
The provider was also found to have used around one minute of Genshin Impact audio as AI training material. The resulting AI voices were considered substantially similar to the voices of the original characters.
AI Doesn’t Automatically Avoid Copyright Problems
The ruling could be significant for companies offering AI-generated character voices.
AI voice cloning has made it increasingly easy to reproduce recognizable voices using relatively small audio samples. However, this case suggests that simply generating the final audio through an AI model may not protect a company when copyrighted material was used to train the system and the resulting product is deliberately marketed around recognizable characters.
The commercial nature of the service also appears to have played an important role. The company wasn’t merely experimenting with the technology—it was selling voice packs while using Genshin Impact characters and material to promote them.
miHoYo Awarded 750,000 Yuan
The Shanghai court ultimately ordered the AI voice provider to pay 750,000 yuan in damages, equivalent to roughly $112,000.
The decision sends another warning to AI companies working with copyrighted games, characters and voice performances.
As AI voice cloning becomes more accessible, companies may find it increasingly difficult to argue that a voice is completely separate from its source simply because an AI model generated the final output.
For game publishers such as miHoYo, the ruling could also provide another legal avenue for challenging unauthorized AI services that build commercial products around their characters, dialogue and other creative assets.
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