Barely a week after unveiling its new Reader App, which can narrate virtually any piece of written text users present to it, ElevenLabs has already released a significant update for the AI-powered program.
On Wednesday, the audio AI startup announced that it will offer users the option to have their words spoken by one of four classic Hollywood stars: Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland, James Dean, and Sir Laurence Olivier as part of its “Iconic Voices Collection.”
Now you may be asking yourself, “how do I know that these voices are accurate, given that I wasn’t even alive during the Carter administration?” Turns out, ElevenLabs collaborated closely with the deceased stars’ estates to ensure that their digital avatars sound just like the actors themselves once did.
Introducing ElevenLabs Iconic Voices.
Listen to your favorite books and articles voiced by Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier on our Reader App.
The app is completely free to download and use. Get it here: https://t.co/uooD5LVm6i pic.twitter.com/US5vIJ22AB
— ElevenLabs (@elevenlabsio) July 2, 2024
“It’s exciting to see our mother’s voice available to the countless millions of people who love her. 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,” Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, said in the announcement blog. The company suggests employing these voice avatars to narrate the classic literature they were famous for — Judy Garland reading The Wizard of Oz or Sir Olivier perform as Sherlock Holmes.
The four celebrities join a stable of more than a million user- and company-generated voices featured in the Reader App. With it, users can upload PDFs, copy and paste text, even link to URLs for the app to read back. The app is currently available on Apple devices exclusively, specifically anything running iOS and iPadOS 15 or later.
Its service is also restricted to the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. for now, though the company expects to expand to the EU market by July 11.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.