Stephen Fry was rushed to hospital with rib and leg injuries after he plunged from a 6ft-high stage during a talk on AI.

The actor and comic, 66, had finished addressing the £495-per-ticket CogX Festival last Thursday (14.09.23) at London’s O2 arena and was leaving when he fell, but his scare has only now emerged.

Organisers are investigating how the incident could have happened and it is not clear whether he remains in hospital.

A source told The Times newspaper: “It looked like it was too dark and there didn’t look like there was a handrail. He fell two metres to the floor. He looked to have been hurt as he had to leave in a wheelchair.”

Stephen has not posted on social media since the accident.

Greenwich council said that it had been alerted to the incident and was considering opening an investigation.

In his talk the comic said it was a “weird time to be alive” after he showed the crowd how his voice had been cloned and used in a documentary without his permission.

He played the clip from a historical show and told the audience: “I said not one word of that – it was a machine.

“Yes, it shocked me. They used my reading of the seven volumes of the ‘Harry Potter’ books and from that data-set an AI of my voice was created, and it made that new narration.”

Stephen did not name who made the documentary, but added: “It could therefore have me read anything from a call to storm parliament to hard porn, all without my knowledge and without my permission.

“And this, what you just heard, was done without my knowledge. So I heard about this, I sent it to my agents on both sides of the Atlantic, and they went ballistic – they had no idea such a thing was possible.”

Stephen added he had warned his agent: “You ain’t seen nothing yet. This is audio. It won’t be long until full deepfake videos are just as convincing.”