The estate of late comedian George Carlin just settled its lawsuit against the creators of the Dudesy podcast, who used AI to mimic his voice in an unauthorized comedy special. The podcasters agreed to permanently scrub the hourlong video and stop using Carlin’s likeness or voice entirely. The swift resolution dodges a major legal test around fair use and parody, but sends an early warning against unauthorized AI resurrections.
OpenAI just shared early results from Voice Engine, a model that can clone anyone's voice using just a single 15-second audio sample. While trusted partners are testing it for translation and speech therapy, OpenAI is holding back a wider public release over deepfake risks during an election year.
ElevenLabs just announced a partnership with rabbit to bring its low-latency, emotionally rich voice models to the pocket-sized r1 companion. Users can simply press a button and speak to execute multi-level tasks like hailing rides and ordering food through rabbit OS. Why it matters: natural-sounding voice is the missing piece in making standalone AI hardware feel like a real assistant rather than a robotic gimmick.
Tennessee just became the first U.S. state to sign off on legislation protecting musicians from unauthorized AI impersonation. The newly signed ELVIS Act explicitly bans mimicking an artist's voice with AI without permission, taking effect on July 1.
Figure just integrated OpenAI's vision and speech models into its Figure 01 humanoid robot, enabling it to hold full conversations while executing physical tasks. The robot can process visual context, follow verbal commands, and even pauses naturally while speaking. Why it matters: Bringing ChatGPT into a physical frame turns generative AI into an embodied agent, accelerating the race toward real-world AGI.
Deepgram just launched Aura, a real-time text-to-speech API designed to help conversational AI agents speak without awkward pauses. It renders realistic voices in under half a second—often under 0.3 seconds—at $0.015 per 1,000 characters, making natural phone-based customer service bots much cheaper and faster.
Biden just called for a ban on AI voice impersonations during his State of the Union address. While he didn't share specifics on guardrails or whether the rules would reach Hollywood, synthetic voices are clearly moving from industry labor disputes straight onto the federal agenda.
OpenAI just rolled out 'Read Aloud' to ChatGPT, letting users listen to generated answers across iOS, Android, and the web. On mobile, you simply press and hold an answer to play audio, while the web version adds an on-screen button under the output. It gives users a quick hands-free listening option on the go.
Pika just rolled out Lip Sync powered by ElevenLabs, allowing AI-generated characters' mouths to move in sync with spoken dialogue. Creators can type text prompts or upload their own audio tracks directly. For now, it is available in early access only to Pika Pro subscribers and invited Super Collaborators.
ElevenLabs just partnered with Perplexity to launch Discover Daily, a short-form daily podcast covering breakthroughs in innovation, science, and culture. The show merges Perplexity's real-time search engine with ElevenLabs' synthetic voices to deliver automated audio briefings on the go, available now across major podcast platforms.
ElevenLabs just announced it was selected for the 2024 Disney Accelerator program. The voice AI startup aims to tap into Disney's massive creative sandbox to break down language barriers. Why it matters: Landing a spot with Disney gives ElevenLabs a direct pipeline into Hollywood's biggest media powerhouse.
ElevenLabs just introduced new safeguards to prevent its AI voice tech from meddling in the 2024 elections. The company rolled out a "no-go voices" safeguard that blocks users from mimicking active political candidates, starting with US and UK races, and explicitly outlawed political robocalls and impersonation chatbots. Why it matters: With critical elections taking place worldwide, the pressure is on AI voice platforms to curb convincing deepfakes before they derail voter trust.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver just revealed NB-AI, a voice-driven assistant built to personalize live basketball broadcasts. In a demo with rookie Victor Wembanyama, Silver commanded the tool to remake a live play "as if it were a Spider-Man movie," instantly transforming players into comic-style cartoon characters and letting viewers buy sneakers off players' feet in real time.
Amazon researchers just unveiled BASE TTS, a 980M-parameter speech model trained on 100,000 hours of public audio that exhibits LLM-like emergent behaviors. Scaling the model allowed it to naturally master tricky tasks like emotional inflection, whispered dialogue, and complex syntax without explicit fine-tuning. Why it matters: Text-to-speech may finally be escaping the uncanny valley, though Amazon is keeping the weights under wraps for safety.
ElevenLabs just rolled out voice monetization, allowing creators to earn passive cash from their AI voice clones in the Voice Library. Users simply upload 30 minutes of audio to build a clone, getting paid whenever paying subscribers generate speech with it. The platform also includes owner verification and daily payout tracking.
The FCC just banned the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls, ruling that voice-cloning tech falls under existing federal consumer protection laws. State attorneys general now have the authority to prosecute robocallers solely for deploying AI voices, giving regulators immediate legal teeth after high-profile political deepfakes.
Roblox just launched a real-time AI chat translator supporting 16 languages, powered by its proprietary large language model. When a Korean user types in Korean, an English-speaking player sees it in English while a German speaker reads it in German instantly. It is now live across all Roblox experiences using TextChatService, with voice translation planned next.
The FCC just proposed officially declaring AI voice cloning in robocalls illegal under existing consumer protection laws. Spurred by deepfaked calls mimicking President Biden in New Hampshire, the ruling would treat cloned voices as prohibited artificial speech, making it much easier for regulators to prosecute fraudsters without waiting to prove secondary crimes.
Apple is rolling out automated transcripts across Apple Podcasts in the iOS 17.4 beta, powered by its machine learning models. Beta testers report that nearly all shows in Apple's network now display full text. Episodes added via external URLs are currently excluded, with a general release expected in March.
A fake robocall mimicking President Biden just urged New Hampshire voters to skip the primary, and experts say it is almost certainly an AI deepfake. Media detection firm Reality Defender confirmed the audio was likely manipulated. Anyone can now clone political figures with minimal audio and cheap tools, highlighting a massive gap in election regulations.
