At 84 years old, Martha Stewart isn’t afraid to speak her mind—even when it comes to social media. In a recent appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast with Lauryn and Michael Bosstick, Stewart didn’t hold back when asked about what she finds distasteful online. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the content itself that she took issue with, but rather a specific voice that she simply can’t stand.
“It’s that voice. That guy’s voice. I hate his voice so much,” Stewart confessed. “You know, the guy who is giving instructions all the time, that high kind of high-pitched voice. It’s the voice of a robot. That voice… that is an awful voice.”
Stewart went on to explain that this particular voice is pervasive online, even appearing in content she otherwise enjoys. “I don’t like that that same voice is used for so many, sometimes really good projects,” she said. The Emmy-winning TV host likened it to an announcer’s voice that has been distorted into something harsh and unnatural. “It was based on a person’s voice… but it’s worse than any voice that was ever on the radio.”
While Stewart didn’t specify which voice in particular she was referring to, her description fits a style that most people will recognize—the AI text-to-speech narrator that provides instructions in everything from recipe tutorials to motivational clips. This technology gained popularity around 2020 but has since become a controversial topic due to its impact on the voiceover industry.
In fact, voice actor Beverly Standing recently filed a lawsuit against TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, alleging that the platform used a robotic version of her voice without permission. This legal battle shed light on the use of AI voices in social media content, with Canadian radio host Kat Callaghan’s “Jessie” becoming one of TikTok’s most recognizable voices.
Today, both TikTok’s built-in options and third-party AI voice generators flood social media with synthetic narrators, with the male AI voiceover Stewart critiqued becoming one of the most polarizing sounds online. Love it or hate it, this voice has become a defining feature of digital content consumption.
Peace Nero is a writer and blogger who loves to explore different topics of self-development. She shares her personal experiences in order to help people discover their true purpose in life.