ElevenLabs strike deals with celebs to create AI audio | TechCrunch

ElevenLabs struck a deal with actors Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey to AI-generate their voices, the company announced this week.

Hollywood and AI have an up-and-down relationship, with AI and its — or lack thereof — guardrails serving among the main concerns that led to the Hollywood strikes a few years ago. Since then, some artists have started to warm up to the idea of AI.

Last year, Meta announced that its Meta AI would offer voice assistants that sound like actresses Kristen Bell and Judi Dench. With McConaughey, an investor in ElevenLabs, the company will translate his newsletter into Spanish audio with the use of his AI voice.

ElevenLabs also announced this week that it was launching a marketplace to let brands use authorized AI-generated voices of celebrities, which will include Caine and other names like Liza Minelli and Dr. Maya Angelou.

ElevenLabs is one of the more popular AI unicorn companies and has backers including a16z and ICONIQ.