A family expressed distress after discovering that the voice of their late father was used without permission in a Royal Mail Christmas advertisement through artificial intelligence technology.

Paul Vaughan, a voiceover artist known for narrating the Paddington Bear books and the BBC Horizon science programme, passed away in 2014 at the age of 89. Last year, his daughter Lucy Wynne was taken aback to hear what sounded like her father’s voice in Royal Mail’s festive campaign titled "It’s so much more than just a card."

Royal Mail initially declined to confirm whether the voice was generated using AI until intervention from the campaign group Save Our Voices Now, which enlisted voice-pattern experts for analysis. Wynne said she frequently listens to her father’s audiobooks, recounting, “Imagine my shock when his voice popped up last Christmas. No one in my family had given permission to use his voice. No one asked. I was really upset. If Dad had been alive he would have been livid.”

After raising concerns directly with Royal Mail, Wynne reportedly received no immediate response. Save Our Voices Now is advocating for legal recognition of voice ownership, highlighting the absence of laws preventing voice cloning. The group alleges that Royal Mail outsourced the voiceover production to Fameplay, an AI company based in the Czech Republic, which is partly owned by billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, also an owner of Royal Mail.

Vincent Hughes, a professor of forensic speech science, supported the family’s concerns. Hughes noted, “There is considerable phonetic similarity between the voice in the adverts and that of Paul Vaughan, both in patterns and overall voice quality.”

Royal Mail issued a statement acknowledging the concerns but maintained that the voiceover was AI-generated using prompts and was not intended to replicate any specific individual. The company characterized the use of AI voice technology as increasingly common in advertising but did not clarify the details of the voice’s origin.