The estates of several Hollywood legends are now exploring opportunities to profit from artificial intelligence voice cloning, which will bring back the voices of deceased stars for new commercial ventures, according to reports.
Voice cloning firm ElevenLabs revealed it has signed deals with the estates of late stars such as Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland, James Dean, and Sir Laurence Olivier, CNBC reported. The agreements allow the company to use advanced technology to replicate these voices for various projects, including an audiobook app.
Founded in 2023, ElevenLabs specializes in generating audio for books, news articles, video games, film pre-production, and advertising, according to the report, which notes that the company already works with publishers like The New York Times and The Washington Post, and was recently chosen by Disney to participate in its accelerator program.
"You need around 30 minutes of high-quality audio to create a professional voice clone," said Sam Sklar, a member of ElevenLabs' growth team.
The voices are created using the celebrity's existing recordings and can be used to read various types of text, such as articles, PDFs, and newsletters. However, the generated voice and content can only be used within the reading app and cannot be exported.
The AI industry has struggled with issues around using celebrity voices. OpenAI reversed its stance in May after actress Scarlett Johansson accused the company of misusing her voice without her permission, despite her rejecting licensing offers. Sklar said they were aware of how the tech could be abused.
"We're very alive to the risks associated with synthetic media and take the safe use of our tools incredibly seriously," Sklar said
Safeguards include content moderation, penalties for misuse, and measures to ensure AI voices don’t impact the 2024 election unfairly. Amid concerns, ElevenLabs notes how its IconicVoices tool attains permissions and curates usage of the voices.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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