CD Projekt uses AI to restore Polish Geralt voice actor's pre-stroke performance

CD Projekt has used AI from the company Respeecher to modify the voice of Jacek Rozenek, the Polish voice actor for Geralt, in the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Rozenek suffered a stroke in 2019 that left his voice deeper and gruffer than when he originally recorded the role a decade ago.

Rozenek is still providing the voice for the Polish version of the expansion, but Respeecher is adjusting his recordings to match his younger voice from the original game. Synthetic speech artist Dmytro Vasylets said the goal was to make Rozenek's voice sound alive, rich and young again, a process that took dozens of hours of training models and working through AI artifacts.

Rozenek expressed support for the AI treatment, saying the point is to have the voice as close as possible to his from 12 years ago. This is not CD Projekt's first collaboration with Respeecher; the studio previously used the company to recreate the voice of the late Miłogost Reczek for roles in Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3.

CD Projekt localization producer Mikołaj Szwed said this was a special case due to Rozenek's health issues. The studio has no plans to use similar AI treatment for Doug Cockle, the English voice of Geralt, or for any future Witcher games set later in the timeline, where a vocal change would be natural.