OpenAI just published its official GPT-4o System Card and Preparedness scorecard, revealing how the omni model performs under frontier safety evaluations. While cybersecurity, biological threats, and autonomy risks all scored low, persuasion touched borderline medium. The report highlights extensive red teaming across 45 languages, focusing heavily on preventing unauthorized voice cloning and impersonation.
Amazon Music just rolled out Topics, an AWS-powered feature that uses AI to analyze podcast transcripts and descriptions to generate clickable subject tags. Tapping a tag lets listeners jump straight to other episodes across shows discussing the same subject. Why it matters: It turns hours of conversational audio into searchable, cross-show threads so you can follow ideas instead of just feeds.
Meta is reportedly negotiating multi-million-dollar deals with actors like Judi Dench, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key to license their voices for its Meta AI assistant. The company aims to wrap up deals ahead of its September Connect event, bringing the voices to Instagram and Ray-Ban smart glasses. Why it matters: Meta is betting that authentic star voices will make hardware like smart glasses feel less like a gadget and more like an engaging companion.
OpenAI just started rolling out its advanced voice mode to a select group of ChatGPT Plus subscribers, and early demos are popping up online. Videos show the bot imitating pilot intercoms, correcting French pronunciation, and mimicking regional US accents. OpenAI confirmed the feature will expand to all paying Plus users this fall.
Yum! Brands just announced plans to expand its "Voice AI" ordering system to hundreds of Taco Bell drive-thrus in the US by the end of 2024. The tech has been tested across 100+ stores for two years to cut wait times and ease worker workload. Why it matters: While McDonald's recently retreated from drive-thru AI tests, Yum! is aggressively pushing forward.
Vimeo just launched an AI-powered translation tool that translates videos, audio, and subtitles into 29 languages while cloning the speaker's original voice. It accepts video inputs in over 50 languages, and viewers can toggle between translated audio tracks right inside the player. Why it matters: It bypasses expensive voice actors and agencies, making global corporate training and marketing videos far cheaper to localize.
Avi Schiffmann just unveiled Friend, a $99 screenless AI pendant built solely for emotional companionship. The Bluetooth necklace constantly listens to your day and texts you like a real friend rather than helping with work, backed by $2.5M in funding with shipments slated for January 2025.
NVIDIA just showcased James, an interactive digital human built on its ACE platform and ElevenLabs voice tech that connects with users using humor and emotion. The company also previewed Maxine 3D, which turns 2D video feeds into real-time 3D avatars for telepresence. Virtual brand ambassadors are quickly shifting from uncanny bots into expressive, lifelike agents.
Elon Musk just shared an AI-manipulated parody of a Kamala Harris campaign ad on X without context, calling it "amazing." By omitting the original creator's parody disclaimer, the repost appears to breach X's own rules against deceptive synthetic media, drawing fierce pushback from lawmakers.
French research lab Kyutai just unveiled Moshi, an open-source conversational voice AI boasting an end-to-end latency of only 200 milliseconds. Built from scratch in six months, it can listen and talk at the same time and run directly on a laptop without an internet connection.
ElevenLabs just rolled out Voice Isolator, a neural speech tool that strips ambient chatter, street sounds, and background music from recordings in a single pass. It runs directly in the browser across common formats like WAV and MP3, offering 10,000 monthly credits without requiring extra plugins.
ElevenLabs just added AI-recreated voices of iconic stars like Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds, and Sir Laurence Olivier to its Reader App. Partnering with their estates, the app lets you hear Garland read The Wizard of Oz or Olivier narrate Sherlock Holmes. Why it matters: It shows a legitimate, estate-approved path for legendary celebrity voices in AI, though they're strictly limited to personal listening and can't be exported.
TIME just teamed up with ElevenLabs to bring Audio Native to TIME.com, automatically generating voiceovers for select articles. The integration started brewing back in March 2023 and is now live with voice options like Brian. Why it matters: It gives millions of readers a hands-free listening option and shows how top newsrooms are practical about adopting AI audio tools.
Character.AI just rolled out a two-way voice calling feature, letting users talk out loud to its AI characters in real time. It supports multiple languages including English, Chinese, and Spanish, with low latency and tap-to-interrupt controls. Why it matters: Turning text bots into voice buddies makes role-play and language practice feel far more personal.
NBC just announced an AI clone of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels to narrate personalized Paris Olympics recaps on Peacock. Viewers can pick their favorite sports and get greeted by their first name in custom morning highlights, with NBC estimating up to 7 million variants—all vetted by human editors before hitting user feeds.
OpenAI just pushed back the rollout of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode alpha by a month. The team says it needs extra time to refine content refusal guardrails and ready server capacity, targeting a full rollout to Plus subscribers in the fall.
ElevenLabs just rolled out its new Reader app on iOS and Android, letting users listen to any article, PDF, or newsletter read aloud by its lifelike AI voices. It is free to use for the first three months. While it currently only supports English, offline mode and 29 additional languages are already on the roadmap.
Synthesia just launched Synthesia 2.0, upgrading its AI video platform with personalized avatars shot via webcam or phone and multi-language voice cloning in over 30 tongues. It also previewed next-gen full-body avatars that can talk with their hands later this year. It's making studio-grade corporate video production as simple as typing a doc.
TikTok just unveiled Symphony Digital Avatars and AI Dubbing to supercharge marketing content across borders. The tool offers pre-built commercial avatars speaking over 30 languages, custom avatars modeled on real creators, and automatic dubbing into 10+ languages. Why it matters: Brands and creators can now scale localized video campaigns worldwide without reshooting footage.
Google DeepMind just unveiled its video-to-audio (V2A) technology, which generates synchronized soundtracks, sound effects, and dialogue directly from video pixels and optional text prompts. Using a diffusion-based model, it pairs with video generators like Veo without requiring tedious manual audio alignment. Why it matters: Silent AI video is one of generative media's biggest immersion killers, though DeepMind notes lip-syncing still needs work before any public release.
