A federal judge in New York has ruled that a lawsuit filed by two voice-over artists against AI voice startup Lovo Inc. can move forward. The artists, Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage, allege that their voices were cloned and used without proper consent as part of the AI company’s training data and commercial offerings.
While the judge dismissed the artists’ claims that their voices were protected under federal copyright law, other key allegations remain active. These include claims of breach of contract, deceptive business practices, and improper use of their voices for training artificial intelligence models.
Lovo, a California-based AI startup, had asked for the entire lawsuit to be thrown out but has not responded publicly to the decision. The court’s ruling comes amid a growing wave of legal actions by creators accusing AI companies of using their work without permission to build and train generative models.
According to the lawsuit filed in 2024, Lehrman and Sage were approached through the freelance platform Fiverr by anonymous individuals claiming to represent Lovo. They were told their voices would be used for “academic research” and “test scripts,” and not shared externally. Lehrman was paid $1200, while Sage received $800.
Months later, the couple heard what sounded like Lehrman’s voice speaking through an AI chatbot during a podcast discussing the impact of AI on Hollywood jobs. “We needed to pull the car over,” Lehrman said in a past interview. “The irony that AI is coming for the entertainment industry, and here is my voice talking about the potential destruction of the industry, was really quite shocking.”
Further investigation revealed voice clones named Kyle Snow and Sally Coleman on Lovo’s Genny platform, which the couple believes were based on their own. Sage’s alleged voice was used in a fundraising video, and Lehrman’s in a YouTube ad for the company.
Lovo later removed the voices, saying they were not popular among users.
The case will now proceed in the US District Court in Manhattan, with the artists’ attorney calling the ruling a “spectacular” victory and expressing confidence in holding the company accountable.
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