And I use it to make fart sounds
ElevenLabs is a company that makes robot voices. Nothing new there, but they’re getting really, really good at it. You can give the voice directions like: “[yawns] Good morning [smacks lips] gimme a sec.” It infers tone and emotion from context.
And, yes, [fart] works. I’m sure Uncle B will be happy to tell you how hard I laughed.
In addition to text to speech, it’ll do speech to text, voice creation, sound effects, a voice isolator and a voice changer. It’ll also do images, video and music, but I don’t know how well – there are specialist sites for that.
People are using them to narrate audiobooks and create podcasts and YouTube channels without revealing their real voices.
You can clone your own voice. And if that gives you the personal security willies, be warned: they already have your voice. I called up my pension provider the other day and the robot said my identity was confirmed by voice analysis. I am damn sure I never gave permission for that.
At some point, the courts (in America, I assume) ruled that your voice isn’t copyrightable. Which is why you hear so many Youtubes narrated by David Attenborough, John Goodman or that one hispanic guy who seems to do all the police ride-along voice-overs.
A free account gets you 10,000 credits a month – not enough to narrate a whole audiobook, but plenty to make David Attenborough cut the cheese.
September 29, 2026 — 4:56 pm
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