Judy Garland passed distant 55 years agone — but put immoderate document, e-book, aliases record into a caller AI app, and her voice will beryllium what you perceive reference to you.
Text-to-speech AI startup ElevenLabs announced connected Tuesday that its free Reader App uses AI cloning to replicate nan unsocial voices of Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier.
The app, which came out past week connected iOS (with preregistration unfastened for Android), takes immoderate PDF file, article aliases matter and transforms it into a voiceover that sounds for illustration 1 of nan iconic voices — complete pinch emotion and contextual understanding.
"It's breathtaking to spot our mother's sound disposable to nan countless millions of group who emotion her," Liza Minnelli, girl of Judy Garland and typical of nan Garland Estate, said successful nan property release. Minnelli added, "Our family believes that this will bring caller fans to Mama."
ElevenLabs worked pinch nan estates of nan precocious stars to create nan technology.
The startup envisions users listening to Sherlock Homes successful Olivier's sound aliases The Wonderful Wizard of Oz successful Garland's voice.
Judy Garland successful nan 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz directed by Victor Fleming. Credit: Getty Images
Voice-cloning isn't a caller exertion of AI, and immoderate of its usage cases tin beryllium problematic. For example, audio cloning has been utilized to effort to scam group retired of money and individual information.
Related: Scammers Are Using AI to Clone Your Loved One's Voice
ElevenLabs users tin easy create audio deepfakes, aliases realistic-sounding impersonations of someone's voice. In January 2023, nan startup acknowledged that its exertion had been utilized "for malicious purposes" and decided to put voice-cloning down a paywall.
ElevenLabs' safety page, arsenic of this writing, discloses that nan institution moderates each contented done automated and quality review, traces contented backmost to anyone misusing it and reports forbidden activity to rule enforcement.
Outside of ElevenLabs, nan ethicality of voice-cloning has precocious travel nether scrutiny. Scarlett Johanssen took ineligible action against ChatGPT-maker OpenAI successful May erstwhile nan sound of its newest ChatGPT exemplary was "so eerily similar" to hers that her "closest friends and news outlets could not show nan difference."
Related: Scarlett Johansson, OpenAI Controversy Just Starting: Lawyer