Voices of Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland and Other Late Actors Come to Life Thanks to AI
A text-to-speech app developed by ElevenLabs, a software company specializing in generating "natural-sounding speech," uses AI to employ the voices of several late Hollywood stars in a whole new way.
The content-narrating Reader App recently debuted its Iconic Voices collection, which through a partnership with the late actors' estates, adds the voices of Judy Garland, Burt Reynolds, Sir Laurence Olivier and James Dean to its library that users can pick from when using the app to narrate digital text.
"It's exciting to see our mother's voice available to the countless millions of people who love her," said Liza Minnelli, legendary singer and actress, as well as one of Garland's daughters and an heir to her estate, in a statement. "Through the spectacular new technology offered by ElevenLabs, our family believes that this will bring new fans to Mama, and be exciting to those who already cherish the unparalleled legacy that Mama gave and continues to give to the world."
Some of the developers' recommended "reads" include L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz voiced by Garland and Sherlock Holmes narrated by Olivier.
Along with the e-book versions of classics, the Reader App can also transform PDFs, newsletters, "or any other text on your phone...into an emotionally rich, context aware voiceover." However, there are limitations, as the official release noted content narrated using the Iconic Voices collection is exclusively for personal use, as it's not part of the app's "broader Voice Library for creating content to share."
The Reader App is available to iOS users in select countries, where it is free to download and use for the first three months. It's currently not compatible with Android devices, but those interested can join the waitlist and pre-register ahead of its upcoming release.
