YouTube channel ‘Attenborough Lore’ has created a short nature documentary about Warhammer 40k Tyranids, narrated by the AI-synthesised voice of David Attenborough. “The Horrific Stages of a Tyranid Invasion with David Attenborough” was posted on April 10, and uses an eerily accurate facsimile of the elder nature presenter to describe the devastating alien assault.
For any David Attenborough fans who found this article and aren’t familiar with the Tyranids, here’s the short version: in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium, the Tyranids are a swarm of aliens invading the Milky Way from the void beyond the stars. They’re a hive species controlled by psychic overlords, and their fleets ravenously devour all biomass on any planet they encounter.
Tyranids are poised to be the title fighters of Warhammer 40k 10th edition, appearing in the launch box set with brand new models that will face off against mankind’s Space Marines. They’re a popular topic on Warhammer 40k lore channels, with a strong claim to be the Warhammer 40k faction most likely to destroy the Imperium of Man
Attenborough Lore began posting YouTube shorts on March 2, but hasn’t revealed anything about themselves personally. In a Community message to channel followers on April 13 they state “It is just a fun hobby, I thought it would be funny to hear these Planet Earth style mini documentaries set in 40k, and I’m immensely satisfied that other people share this opinion and have been enjoying what I’ve made… This has been my first attempt at content creation, so I’m still getting to grips with the editing, and I hope that in the future I’ll be able to produce these videos to a higher standard”.
They add: “this is an AI generated voice, I spent some time making sure the voice sounds fairly accurate, but obviously this isn’t actually David Attenborough”. While this is a whimsical use of voice synthesis technology, Wargamer notes that the technology could easily be used maliciously for fraud, defamation, or to maliciously ridicule someone.
David Attenborough is a venerable statesman of British television and an active ecological campaigner. US audiences won’t be quite as familiar with him as Brits – many of his nature documentary series were over-dubbed by American actors or presenters for their US release, such as Oprah Winfrey for Life and Alec Baldwin for Frozen Planet. Planet Earth II arrived in the US un-dubbed in 2017.