The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past Uses AI to Restore Geralt’s Polish Voice After Actor’s Stroke
CD Projekt Red has confirmed it used artificial intelligence to adjust the Polish voice performance of Geralt of Rivia in Songs of the Past, the upcoming and final expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Speaking to Game File, the studio explained that it worked with AI voice company Respeecher to bring longtime Polish Geralt actor Jacek Rozenek’s voice closer to how it sounded a decade ago, after a stroke permanently changed its tone.
A Decade of Changes to Geralt’s Polish Voice
Rozenek has voiced Geralt in every Polish language release of the Witcher games, including The Witcher 3 and its two story expansions, and his performances are widely respected among Polish speaking fans. In 2019 he suffered a stroke that temporarily left him unable to speak. He slowly rehabilitated over the following years, and by the time The Witcher 3’s next generation update arrived in 2022, he was able to record new lines again, though the sessions were demanding and left him drained. He kept training afterward and eventually returned to steady voice work.
When CD Projekt Red began work on Songs of the Past, which takes place during the events of the base game, it wanted Rozenek back in the role. The stroke and the years since, however, had left his voice noticeably lower and rougher than the performance Polish fans remember from 2015, creating a mismatch with a story set in that same timeframe.
How Respeecher Rebuilt the Voice of 2015
With Rozenek’s consent, CD Projekt Red turned to Respeecher, the same AI voice studio it had worked with before. Rozenek still records every line for Songs of the Past exactly as he always has, in his own voice and with his own performance. Respeecher then processes those recordings through a model trained on his earlier Witcher 3 dialogue, adjusting the tone and texture of his voice so it matches the younger sound fans associate with the character, without replacing his actual performance.
Localisation producer Mikolaj Szwed said the studio is well aware of how divisive generative AI is among voice actors, but considers this a narrow, consent driven exception rather than a shift in policy. Rozenek, for his part, said he is glad to return to a character he knows intimately, and that the voice work simply needed to catch up with his own memory of the role.
“I have great trust…for the creators of this game.”
Jacek Rozenek, Polish voice of Geralt of Rivia
Songs of the Past sends Geralt back to Letten, the homeland of the bard Dandelion, for one last adventure in The Witcher 3’s timeline.
Not a Blanket Policy for AI Voices
This is not the first time CD Projekt Red has leaned on Respeecher. During Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion, the studio used the same technology to recreate the voice of Milogost Reczek, who played Viktor Vektor and Vesemir in Polish before his death in 2021, with his family’s blessing. CD Projekt Red has stressed that this remains a narrow approach tied to specific, difficult circumstances rather than a general move toward AI performances. The studio says it has no plans to touch the voice of Doug Cockle, who plays Geralt in English, and that Rozenek’s own voice would not be digitally altered again in any future Witcher game set later in the series timeline, since a change in his voice would make sense there on its own.
Songs of the Past was first revealed during CD Projekt Red’s Witcher double reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026, where the studio also confirmed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. Billed as the final chapter of one of the most decorated role playing games ever made, the expansion sends Geralt to Letten, the idyllic homeland of the bard Dandelion, to uncover a dark secret buried beneath it, built by series veterans at CD Projekt Red alongside The Witcher Remake developer Fool’s Theory.
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Picture Source: CD Projekt Red
