The Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court has recently delivered its judgment in Shanghai’s first unfair competition lawsuit concerning AI voice cloning. MiHoYo, the developer behind the globally popular game Genshin Impact, uncovered that an AI voice-altering software had, without permission, utilized the voices of 63 in-game characters to train its AI model. The software not only offered paid voice-changing services but also employed character images, thereby infringing upon MiHoYo’s rights. In response, MiHoYo initiated legal proceedings against the software’s operator. The defendant contended that voice rights should be vested in the individual voice actors. However, forensic voiceprint analysis strongly suggested that the AI-generated audio closely resembled the original character voices. The court ruled that the unique vocal timbres of game characters serve as valuable commercial identifiers. Consequently, the defendant was ordered to halt its unfair competition practices and pay MiHoYo 750,000 yuan in compensation. Furthermore, on September 7, 2026, the Supreme People’s Court issued its inaugural judicial guidelines on artificial intelligence, explicitly stating that the unauthorized use of a natural person’s voice to train AI models and produce recognizable synthetic speech will be met with judicial support for the individual’s rights claim.