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OMG What the hell are Voice Droids??

So there I was, watching Star Wars films with my children this Christmas time. The first three were already done (A New Hope up to Return of the Jedi), and so the next, newer set of films was in order. Yes, we suffered Ja Ja Binks (such great voice direction there, George), and conversely were thrilled by Lewis Macleod as Sebulba in the Phantom Menace, and then trawled through the more political Attack of the Clones.

But it was whilst watching episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, and munching on the last remnants of the festive banquet that my ears pricked up and an idea suddenly started to form.

To set the scene: Obi Wan Kenobi was dogfighting alongside Anakin, against a whole space-army of fighters, all of whom were synthetic, and led by a synthetic leader called General Grievous. Of course, our heros won the day, killed near-on everything etc, and moved on to the next scenes in the film.

And yeah, yeah, they were Jedi masters and all…but it was two humans against 3,000….droids.

What are Droids?

Droids are the name given to synthetic machines, or robots, in Star Wars.

I’m paraphrasing here, but Obi Wan said something along the lines of “Let’s kill these droids and get out of here”, or something like that. It was a flippant comment. They knew it was going to be easy.

What’s interesting is that George Lucas wrote in the term Droids instead of the term Artificial Creatures, Artificial Intelligence, AI, or anything else, because it meant that they were mass-produced, that they weren’t human. They weren’t as important as the humans in the story. That they were in fact, less than human….

…they were just….droids.

Were the droids useful? Yes actually, in quite a few instances, but they were there to assist the humans, not to replace them.

They were there to win for the antagonists…but they didn’t.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is a misnomer. At the time of writing this blog, the so called “Artificial General Intelligence“, or AGI has not been achieved.

So what is AI? It’s just a clever set of computer programs that do things based on a large dataset of existing human data to appear as though it is human, or intelligent.

This is why it’s a misnomer; there is nothing intelligent about it at all, with the possible exception of the skilled human programmers who wrote the algorithms in the first place. It cannot think. Yes, it can learn… but only because its absorbing more data and adding it to it’s dataset, and then adapting via new, additional algorithms….written by humans.

In itself, it…is…not…intelligent.

Why then is Artificial Intelligence Called Artificial Intelligence?

AI is called AI because

…it sounds good.
Because it sounds impressive.
Because it is a marketers dream.
Because it makes those it might replace feel inferior.
Because it makes us feel like it’s unavoidable
Because it makes it…appear…intelligent
Because it makes us feel that we are the ones that have to keep up
Because it gets investment
Because it sounds like the future
Because it sells

And that in a nutshell is why. It sells.

Artificial Intelligence is a term created by marketing departments, and the coders themselves to sell a product.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic name, and if I wanted to create something that dominated a marketplace, I would probably choose something similar.

It’s a very clever term, AI – but we didn’t come up with it – the marketers did – and we are all blindly accepting, following and propagating it…

What’s the Difference Between Droids and Artificial Intelligence?

OK let’s examine that.

Artificial Intelligence is:

A program or programs that use a human dataset, or human created dataset to appear human, or replicate a human function
Is useful in some way
Does not, in itself, think or have general intelligence
May or may not have physical (robotic) form

Droids are:

A physical (robotic) form.
Does not, in itself, think or have general intelligence
Is useful in some way
Contain programs that use a human dataset, or a human created dataset to appear human or replicate a human function

There is…NO…difference.

If you think AI…think Droids…Think Robots. There is literally no difference, aside from the name.

But isn’t AI Useful?

Yes. Absolutely. There are in fact some wonderful uses of AI. And if we exclude all the great advances in things like the medical industry, automotive and many, many others, and so on, and just concentrate on AI Voice (this being a voice-blog) there is loads of great stuff out there, which is way better for being done with Voice AI. For example:

Maps! You just can’t voice every direction set in the world, in realtime!
Assistants! Whether it’s Alexa, Siri, Gemini, Samsung – these fulfil billions of requests with the voice every day – it’s just impossible to do that without AI. This is a perfect use-case for AI Voice!
IVR! Sorry for all those who have earned a living from IVR in the past, but IVR (the on-hold phone system prompts) are a perfect use-case for AI Voices – they are way better if they adapt to each individual user in real-time!
Realtime Translations! Ok these aren’t perfect yet, but realtime translations are opening borders and making the world smaller, and again, this is a perfect use-case of Voice AI. You can’t physically have a million translators all working on-demand in real time, all over the world!
Tik Tok Voices! Ok, contentious one, but one of the reasons Eleven Labs and others are so successful is because of platforms like this. Tik Tok receives a reported 2 million videos uploaded every minute. There is no possible way that humans can voice all these videos. Yes of course, some are better with human voices, but the sheer scale of these kinds of platforms mean that this is a perfectly valid playground for Voice AI.

I have nothing at all against the positive use cases of Voice AI – there are many instances where Voice AI is actually, genuinely better.

Just not the use-cases where having a human voice is better, which let’s be honest, is virtually all other aspects of the existing voice acting industry.

OK – So What The Hell Are You On About Then!!!!

Just this. it’s the marketers who have coined the term Artificial Intelligence – and we have all followed. We have all propagated it.

It makes us weaker as an industry, it makes us fearful for our futures as actors, and it makes a thing which should accompany our industry, seem like something which will replace our industry.

But ask yourself this…….

Do you think companies like Eleven Labs would be happy to put on their website…

“Get your new Voice Droids from us!”

or…

“The most advanced Voice Robots platform on the Market?”

or even….

“Never pay for voiceovers again, with our industry beating Voice Bots?”

No. I don’t think so either.

But that is exactly what they are. They are voice robots. They are voice droids. The only difference is the marketing term.

So Let’s Take the Power Back!

It’s time for us as an industry to take the power back and start changing the narrative. Stop accepting the marketing term AI, and start using our own. Use it daily. Use it to your clients. Stop using the term AI whenever you talk about it, and start using the term Robots.

For example:

Your Client: “I’m really sorry, but we are considering using AI for these voices.”
You: “Oh you mean Voice Robots? Yes ok, well if you think that’s best for your brand, then best of luck!”

or…

Your Friend: “Hey how do you feel about AI killing the voice industry?”
You: “AI? You mean Voice Bots? Well they have perfectly valid uses, but they aren’t going to kill the human side of our industry…”

or…

A prospective client: “Yeah we use AI for all our voices”
You: ” You’re using Voice robots? Ah ok. What made you decide not to use Human Beings?”

It’s time to take the power back. This is OUR industry. We make the rules…..

“”Let’s kill these droids and get out of here.” We knew it was going to be easy- the Voice Robots simply couldn’t do what the Humans could do…”

So repeat your new mantra after me:

Voice Robots….Voice Droids….Voice bots…..

Voice Robots….Voice Droids….Voice bots…..

Voice Robots….Voice Droids….Voice bots…..

Hugh Edwards
Jan 5th 2026.