Oscar-winning actors Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey have made deals with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs that will allow its artificial intelligence technology to replicate their voices.
Caine said in a statement that ElevenLabs is “using innovation not to replace humanity, but to celebrate it.”
“It’s not about replacing voices; it’s about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere,” said the 92-year-old British actor in a written statement.
McConaughey also said he is investing in the New York-based startup and has had a relationship with it for several years. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. McConaughey said the deal will enable him to voice his newsletter in Spanish.
Founded in 2022 and based in New York, ElevenLabs initially developed its technology to dub audio in different languages for movies, audiobooks, and video games to preserve the speaker’s voice and emotions.
But shortly after its public release, ElevenLabs said in January 2023 it was seeing “an increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases” and promised new safeguards to tamp down on abuse, including limiting features to paid users. A year later, however, a digital consultant was able to use ElevenLabs software to mimic then-President Joe Biden’s voice in a robocall message sent to thousands of New Hampshire voters. The company now says it has additional measures to block the cloning of celebrity and other high-profile voices without their consent.