The startup unicorn ElevenLabs, best known for its AI voice-over features, has launched its first public app.
The ElevenLabs Reader: AI Audio program can recognize and voice text from web pages, PDF files, and other documents using 11 different voices. Currently, the app is available for free download on the App Store (but not yet in Ukraine).
Founded in 2022 by former Google machine learning engineer Petr Dabkovsky and former Palantir Technologies deployment strategist Mati Stanishevski, ElevenLabs offers voice cloning services that allow generating audio using neural networks based on uploaded samples of several minutes duration. One of the features of the service also allows translating voice audio into more than 20 different languages, including Ukrainian, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, and Arabic.
In January, ElevenLabs raised $80 million in a funding round that valued it at $1.1 billion. The New York-based company stated that it would use this money to expand its operations. Most of ElevenLabs' agreements are currently focused on audio content, such as an agreement with HarperCollins to create audio versions of books in different languages. The startup also plans to sell its dubbing technology to YouTube creators, movie studios, and news publishers.
Although the launch of the ElevenLabs service was quite positive, it was not without its issues — the technology was immediately seized upon by internet trolls who spread fake voices of celebrities saying offensive things, declaring wars, or quoting Hitler on social media.
Source: Bloomberg
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