The Ringer union wins key AI protections in new contract — with one big catch

Plus, don’t ask Musk about his alleged ketamine use.

The Ringer’s union ratified its new contract with Spotify today, a week after agreeing on a deal and two weeks after the previous contract expired. In addition to increased pay and severance, the union fought hard for protections regarding Spotify’s use of generative AI. They pushed Spotify to require consent for cloning their voices or putting their names on AI content. But the union also gave Spotify one thing it really wants: the ability to use AI to translate The Ringer’s podcasts into other languages.

The union posted the new AI language on X, showing that Spotify must obtain consent from union employees in order to clone their voices. That is very obviously in the interest of those employees who do not want to be replaced by robot versions of themselves. As generative audio AI improves, it is likely there will be a point where a host’s voice is indistinguishable from its AI clone. That not only could result in job loss, but loss of control over your public image. The contract, for a time, keeps those scenarios at bay.

The big caveat is with AI-enabled translations. Spotify does not need permission from employees to translate their audio into other languages, using digital replicas of their own voices. As a compromise, employees can instead request a disclosure to be included in the episode indicating that the voice was generated by AI.