An AI-generated version of late movie legend Jimmy Stewart's voice will narrate bedtime stories on "Calm," a sleep-aid and meditation app.
"The project has the consent of Stewart’s family and his estate (managed by CMG Worldwide)," according to Variety.
Stewart, known for his role in classic movies like "It's a Wonderful Life," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," is the latest actor at the center of the AI debate in the film industry.
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The story, titled "It’s a Wonderful Sleep Story," will be "a heartwarming new holiday tale," according to Calm. "Jimmy Stewart’s calming voice is one of the most iconic in movie history, and we’re thrilled to see it brought to the leading relaxation app on the market," chief marketing officer of CMG Worldwide, Tina Xavie, told Variety. "Thanks to advanced technology, we all get the joy of hearing Jimmy’s unique voice again."
One of Stewart's daughters, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, also released a statement on her father's AI-generated voice deal.
"We are excited for our dad to be the voice of Calm’s latest Sleep Story," Harcourt said. "It’s amazing what technology can do and wonderful to see Dad’s legacy live on this holiday season in new ways, like helping people find restful sleep and sweet dreams."
Calm did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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Some political commentators and journalists criticized the announcement.
"Love to drift off to sleep to the soothing machine clanks of our nightmare tech dystopia," Andrew Egger, associate editor at The Dispatch, wrote.
"Who wants this?" politics reporter Leigh Giangreco wrote. "Jimmy Stewart is not calm in any of his films. He notoriously freaks out in every single one."
Cartoonist Vincent Alexander claimed that there was "no way Jimmy Stewart would be okay with AI using his voice" because the actor was "vocally against people tampering with his work and image."
Other actors affected by the AI revolution in voice and film production have not responded nearly as positively.
Actress Scarlett Johansson has taken legal action, per Variety, against an AI image-generating app called Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar for her voice and likeness in an ad posted on X, formerly Twitter. Johansson’s attorney told the outlet, "We do not take these things lightly. Per our usual course of action in these circumstances, we will deal with it with all legal remedies that we will have."
"Lois & Clark" star Dean Cain told Fox News Digital in an interview that he was curious about the use of AI in movie scripts.
"AI is a weird thing," Cain told Fox News Digital. "I look at someone like [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk who knows a lot more about it, and I think [there] would be some great uses for AI."
"I got to check it out at some point and be like, ‘I want to write a script about a guy on vacation in Spain who meets the love of his life, but they can't speak to each other because [they] speak different languages. Go,’ and just see what it does. And if it writes a script in, you know, 12 seconds or something, it'll blow my mind away," Cain said.
Fox News' Elizabeth Stanton contributed to this report.
