CD Projekt Red Used AI for Geralt’s Voice in the Polish Version of Songs of the Past

In the Polish version of Songs of the Past, the new expansion for The Witcher 3, Geralt’s voice was partly processed with artificial intelligence. CD Projekt Red and actor Jacek Rozenek, who has voiced the witcher in Polish since the first game in the series, told Game File’s Stephen Totilo about the decision.

Jacek Rozenek has voiced Geralt in Polish from the very start of the series. For The Witcher 3 alone, he recorded around 10,000 lines in 2014, and later voiced the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions. Polish players hold his work in high regard, and his performance is often compared to the English version, where Doug Cockle voices Geralt.

In 2019, though, Rozenek had a stroke. For months he couldn’t speak, and his recovery was long and hard: he trained his voice six to seven hours a day. In 2021, he briefly returned to the role and recorded lines for a quest in The Witcher 3’s next-gen update. He says he was “so exhausted after this recording.” Rozenek eventually went back to acting, but his voice had changed. It became lower and gruffer.

That created a problem for Songs of the Past. The expansion is built into the base game, so Geralt’s new lines, like battle cries and one-liners, will play right next to old ones recorded more than a decade ago. CD Projekt Red worried that players would clearly hear the jumps between the old and new Geralt.

The studio brought in AI, but not to replace the actor. Rozenek recorded all of the expansion’s new lines himself. CD Projekt Red then sent all of his recordings from The Witcher 3 to Respeecher, a Ukrainian company that specializes in voice cloning. Respeecher built a model of the actor’s voice and used it to make the new recordings sound the way Rozenek sounded in the base game.

According to Respeecher’s Dmytro Vasylets, it took dozens of hours of training models and working with the CD Projekt Red team. The hardest part was keeping the actor’s emotional range at high audio quality.

Rozenek agreed to have his lines processed and says he fully trusts the studio. “The point is that this voice should be as close as possible to my voice from 12 years ago,” he explained. He also admitted he hasn’t listened to the final version yet and is in no hurry to do so. Looking back on his rehab, Rozenek joked to Totilo: “Now I can understand what the Witcher’s work actually is.”

CD Projekt Red localization producer Mikołaj Szwed called it a special case: “I do think this is one of those ways where you can use AI ethically, with consent and also to do something good.” He also acknowledged that AI remains a big concern for voice actors around the world.

The studio has done something similar before. In Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion, the studio worked with Respeecher to recreate the voice of Polish actor Miłogost Reczek, who voiced Viktor Vektor and died in 2021. That was done with his family’s consent.

Songs of the Past was announced in May 2026 and launches in 2027. The developers have already shared the first gameplay details of Songs of the Past, and fans of Geralt’s bard friend can look forward to it too, since Dandelion will get a lot of attention in the expansion. CD Projekt Red has also confirmed it is developing The Witcher 4, which is set to launch in 2028.