Overview
- Greene filed the complaint on January 23 in Santa Clara County, alleging Google violated California publicity rights and unfair competition laws by replicating his distinctive delivery for NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews.
- Google denies the allegation, with spokesperson José Castañeda saying the male voice in NotebookLM is based on a paid professional actor.
- The lawsuit cites an unnamed AI‑forensic analysis that reported a 53–60% confidence the voice was trained on Greene’s recordings, a claim that remains unproven in court.
- Greene says friends, family, and colleagues alerted him to the resemblance and he described hearing the AI voice as a “completely freaked out” experience.
- NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews, added in 2024, generates podcast‑style summaries with male and female AI cohosts, and the dispute echoes recent questions raised by cases involving Scarlett Johansson’s complaint to OpenAI and industry copyright settlements.