OpenAI has made a quietly acquired Weights.gg, a startup specializing in AI-powered voice cloning recognized for cloning movie star and public determine voices together with Taylor Swift and Samuel L. Jackson.
The creator of ChatGPT has acquired the mental property of the San Francisco-based startup, whereas its six-person group was built-in into completely different components of OpenAI, according to a New York Instances article quoting unnamed sources.
The information of the acquisition got here after Weights.gg introduced in March it was closing down. The corporate beforehand operated a client app, Replay, for AI audio manufacturing, enabling customers to create and share customized AI voice fashions. The platform has attracted consideration for cloning copyrighted voices, together with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, in addition to these of politicians, together with U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joseph Biden.
Presently, it’s unclear how Weight.gg’s expertise shall be included with OpenAI’s merchandise.
The corporate’s personal voice cloning tech, Voice Engine, was offered in 2024 however was not launched publicly resulting from security issues. As a substitute, the corporate restricted entry to chose companions by means of API integrations.
The acquisition comes as expertise corporations face rising authorized stress over AI voice coaching. Final week, journalists, podcasters and audiobook narrators filed biometric privateness lawsuits below Illinois’ Biometric Info Privateness Act (BIPA) towards corporations together with Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, ElevenLabs, Adobe and Samsung Electronics.
The plaintiffs allege the businesses skilled AI voice methods utilizing voiceprints collected from on-line content material with out consent.
It stays unclear how OpenAI plans to make use of Weights.gg’s expertise internally or whether or not any consumer-facing voice cloning merchandise will emerge from the acquisition. Sources cited by The New York Instances mentioned OpenAI is unlikely to launch a public-facing cloning platform just like Replay.
OpenAI has beforehand confronted stress over the dangers posed by generative AI methods, together with issues from civil rights teams and copyright holders over misuse and unauthorized content material era.
The deal however highlights rising competitors round artificial voice era as AI corporations steadiness product growth towards rising issues over consent, copyright and biometric privateness.
Article Subjects
acquisitions | generative AI | OpenAI | artificial voice