Longtime NPR host David Greene sues Google over NotebookLM voice

David Greene, a longtime host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” is suing Google, alleging that the male podcast voice in the company’s NotebookLM tool is based on him, according to reporting from The Washington Post.

Greene said that after friends, family, and co-workers began emailing him about how similar the voice sounded, he became increasingly convinced that the tool was replicating his cadence, intonation, and even his habit of using filler words like “uh.”

“My voice is, like, the most important part of who I am,” Greene said. He currently hosts the KCRW show “Left, Right & Centre.”

Google’s NotebookLM includes a feature that lets users generate a podcast-style audio segment with AI hosts. A Google spokesperson told The Washington Post that the voice used in NotebookLM is not connected to Greene, saying: “The sound of the male voice in NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews is based on a paid professional actor Google hired.”

The dispute is the latest example of concerns around AI voices that resemble real people. In a high-profile prior case, OpenAI removed a ChatGPT voice after actress Scarlett Johansson complained that it sounded like an imitation of her own.