By Ece Yildirim
Publication Date: 2026-02-16 10:30:00
Podcaster David Greene is accusing Google of using his voice without permission to create one of the AI voices in the company’s research and note-taking tool NotebookLM.
Google added Audio Overviews in the second half of 2024, allowing NotebookLM users to make brief podcast episodes out of pages of notes and documents of any kind. The AI-generated podcasts typically have one male and one female cohost. Greene is now claiming that the male co-host was clearly trained on hours of his hard work, which it allegedly now mimics, and he is suing the company for failing to get his permission or offering him any compensation.
“Without his consent, Google sought to replicate Mr. Greene’s distinctive voice—a voice made iconic over decades of decorated radio and public commentary—to create synthetic audio products that mimic his delivery, cadence, and persona,” the complaint filed in a state trial court in Santa Clara County, California claims.
Greene was the…
