Quick answer: Yes, CD Projekt Red is using AI in The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, but only on Geralt’s Polish voice. Longtime actor Jacek Rozenek still records every new line, and AI firm Respeecher then adjusts it to match how he sounded in 2015, with his consent. Doug Cockle’s English performance is not part of it. Current as of November 12, 2026.
CD Projekt Red has confirmed it is pairing Geralt of Rivia’s original Polish voice actor with AI for Songs of the Past, the new Witcher 3 expansion due in 2027. The details come from a Game File interview by Stephen Totilo published November 11, in which both the studio and the actor explain why they agreed to it.
Why CDPR turned to AI
Jacek Rozenek has voiced Geralt in Polish since the first game and recorded around 10,000 lines for The Witcher 3 back in 2014. In 2019 he suffered a stroke and could not speak for months. He came back for a short quest in the 2022 next-gen update, but told Game File he was “so exhausted after this recording,” and trained his voice for six or seven hours a day to keep acting.
When CDPR invited him back about a year ago, the team found his voice was lower and gruffer than before. That was a problem, because the expansion’s new lines, including reactions, battle cries and one-liners, play right next to the thousands of lines he recorded a decade ago. The studio feared Geralt would sound like two different people from scene to scene.
How it works
- Rozenek still performs: he records every new line himself, the same way he always has.
- Respeecher adjusts it: “We basically delivered to Respeecher all the lines that Jacek recorded for us for The Witcher 3,” localization producer Mikołaj Szwed said. “They created an algorithm of his voice, based on his lines.”
- Consent first: Rozenek backs the plan. “The point is that this voice should be as close as possible to my voice from 12 years ago,” he said, adding that he has “great trust” in the game’s creators.
- English is untouched: Doug Cockle returns as Geralt in English, and his performance is not being altered.
Szwed called it “a special case” and defended the choice: “I do think this is one of those ways where you can use AI ethically, with consent and also to do something good.”
Not CDPR’s first time
The studio used Respeecher before, for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Miłogost Reczek, the Polish voice of Viktor Vektor, died after the base game launched, and CDPR recreated his voice for new lines with his family’s consent instead of recasting the role.
Our take
This lands in a tense week for AI in games. VGC notes that House House just confirmed it used AI late in Big Walk‘s development, the same game that won Critics’ Choice at the Golden Joystick Awards. CDPR’s case is different in a way that matters: the actor still gives the performance, agreed to the process, and the tool is trained only on his own past work. Whether fans accept that line, or see it as the first step toward something less careful, is the real debate. For Polish players, the goal is simple: Geralt should sound like Geralt.
If you are playing the remaster now, our Patch 5.01 rundown covers the latest fixes ahead of the expansion.
Sources: Game File (Stephen Totilo), with reporting from VGC and Nintendo Life. Image: official The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Songs of the Past screenshot, CD PROJEKT RED, via Steam.
