Less than two weeks after Prime Video switched on AI lip-sync for dubbed episodes of Maxton Hall, Spain's main association of dubbing actors, Adoma, publicly accused Amazon of failing to protect them. The feature itself is not the complaint; the contracts behind the dubbing work are.
The tool, launched on September 9, alters actors' mouth movements on screen so they match the dubbed dialogue. It debuted on the English dubs of the German series' first two seasons and will be part of the third when it arrives on December 9. Amazon, which calls Maxton Hall its most-watched international original, stresses that the voices remain human and that the AI changes only the picture. Prime Video technology chief Raf Soltanovich pitched it as a smoother experience for viewers and a way for creators to reach wider audiences, with creative oversight kept in place.
Adoma, part of the PASAV federation of voice performers, said on X, as reported by Xataka on September 18, that Amazon has not given dubbing actors an adequate AI clause. The association said companies are training models to imitate their voices without permission or payment. According to Xataka, Amazon has asked actors to cede voice rights for AI training, unions have refused, and some titles are going undubbed in some languages as a result.
Earlier, on September 12, the Valencian branch of the COPE radio network spoke to Adoma member Paco Gisbert, who said real voices bring a performance a machine cannot, that he switches off synthetic dubs, and that most AI platforms were built on taken data. COPE reported that Spanish dubbing actors now add a mandatory clause to their rights contracts barring use of recordings for AI training, prompted by unauthorised clones of Juan Antonio Bernal and of the late Constantino Romero, Spain's voice of Darth Vader and Clint Eastwood.
The clause is filling a gap left by the law: the relevant AI article was dropped from Spain's new Estatuto del Artista over vague wording. Voice Over Herald contrasts that with Mexico, which since May has required written consent and payment for voice cloning and human performers for dubbing into its national languages, and with SAG-AFTRA's 2025 video game agreement tying AI replicas to consent and disclosure. Its argument is that once a picture can be reshaped to fit any voice in any language, the contract is the main safeguard a dubbing actor has left.
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