In its latest round of funding, a start-up company that clones people’s voice was valued at over $1 billion. This investment came from Silicon Valley heavyweights Andreessen Horowitz as well as Sequoia Capital.
ElevenLabs converts written words into speech, which sounds like it was read by a real voice. The software “recreates human intonation with unparalleled fidelity”, says the company.
The company, based in London, has now raised $101 million through its series B investment.
Mati Staniszewski said, “Our ambition is the same – to transform our interaction with content through removing language and communication barriers. We are building cutting-edge technologies to make content available across languages and voices, so that everyone can connect with the information and stories they care about.
The company also announced that it would allow members of the public, via its “voice libraries marketplace”, to sell their voice. This means they can earn money if someone uses the voice.
ElevenLabs stated that sellers must read a text message within a certain timeframe and then undergo manual approval in order to ensure “only authentic, user-verified voice are shared and monetized”.
The company was founded by Staniszewski, a former Google engineer, and Piotr Dabbkowski, a former Palantir engineer. Its voice-cloning technology and dubbing is aimed at the publishing and film industries. About 40 people work for the company.
ElevenLabs stated that the capital announced Monday would be used for research, infrastructure improvements and “to enhance safety measures in order to ensure ethical and responsible development of AI technology”.
The development of voices that sound like humans is controversial. ElevenLabs had to limit its use over the last year, after people recorded deepfake recordings of Emma Watson reciting Mein Kampf or Sir David Attenborough being racially offensive. Also, fake clips were made of President Biden and Sir Alec Guinness making transphobic and sexist comments.
AI is becoming more sophisticated and capable of replacing humans. This has caused concern among those in the performing arts. Recently, the Hollywood writers and actors went on strike to draw attention to the dangers of technology.