 | |
Type of site | Artificial intelligence, speech synthesis, machine learning, deep learning |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founder(s) | 15 |
| URL | 15 |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | None |
| Launched | Initial release: March 12, 2020 Stable release: v24.2.1 / September 2021 |
| Current status | Under maintenance |
| Part of a series on |
| Artificial intelligence |
|---|
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15.ai is a non-commercial freeware artificial intelligence web application that generates natural emotive high-fidelity[a] text-to-speech voices from an assortment of fictional characters from a variety of media sources.[4][5][6][7] Developed by a pseudonymous MIT researcher under the name 15, the project uses a combination of audio synthesis algorithms, speech synthesis deep neural networks, and sentiment analysis models to generate and serve emotive character voices faster than real-time, particularly those with a very small amount of trainable data.
Launched in early 2020, 15.ai began as a proof of concept of the democratization of voice acting and dubbing using technology.[8] Its gratis and non-commercial nature (with the only stipulation being that the project be properly credited when used), ease of use, no user account registration requirement, and substantial improvements to current text-to-speech implementations have been lauded by users;[5][9][4][6] however, some critics and voice actors have questioned the legality and ethicality of leaving such technology publicly available and readily accessible.[8][10][11]
Credited as the impetus behind the popularization of AI voice cloning (also known as audio deepfakes) in content creation and as the first publicly available AI vocal synthesis project to involve the use of existing popular fictional characters, 15.ai has had a significant impact on multiple Internet fandoms, most notably the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Team Fortress 2, and SpongeBob SquarePants fandoms. Furthermore, 15.ai has inspired the use of 4chan's Pony Preservation Project in other generative artificial intelligence projects.[12][13]
Several commercial alternatives have spawned with the rising popularity of 15.ai, leading to cases of misattribution and theft. In January 2022, it was discovered that Voiceverse NFT, a company that voice actor Troy Baker announced his partnership with, had plagiarized 15.ai's work as part of their platform.[14][15][16]
On September 8, 2022, 15.ai was temporarily taken down in preparation for an upcoming update, a year after its last stable release (v24.2.1). As of April 2024, it is still temporarily offline, though the new avatar icon was updated in Twitter.[17]
- ^ Kong, Jungil (2020). "HiFi-GAN: Generative Adversarial Networks for Efficient and High Fidelity Speech Synthesis". arXiv:2010.05646v2 [cs].
- ^ Binkowski, Mikołaj (2019). "High Fidelity Speech Synthesis with Adversarial Networks". arXiv:1909.11646v2 [cs].
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
deepmindwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Zwiezen, Zack (January 18, 2021). "Website Lets You Make GLaDOS Say Whatever You Want". Kotaku. Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Ruppert, Liana (January 18, 2021). "Make Portal's GLaDOS And Other Beloved Characters Say The Weirdest Things With This App". Game Informer. Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Clayton, Natalie (January 19, 2021). "Make the cast of TF2 recite old memes with this AI text-to-speech tool". PC Gamer. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
- ^ Morton, Lauren (January 18, 2021). "Put words in game characters' mouths with this fascinating text to speech tool". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Ng, Andrew (April 1, 2020). "Voice Cloning for the Masses". The Batch. The Batch. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- ^ Chandraseta, Rionaldi (January 19, 2021). "Generate Your Favourite Characters' Voice Lines using Machine Learning". Towards Data Science. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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Denfaminicogamerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Williams, Demi (January 18, 2022). "Voiceverse NFT admits to taking voice lines from non-commercial service". NME. NME. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
- ^ Wright, Steve (January 17, 2022). "Troy Baker-backed NFT company admits to using content without permission". Stevivor. Archived from the original on January 17, 2022. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
- ^ Henry, Joseph (January 18, 2022). "Troy Baker's Partner NFT Company Voiceverse Reportedly Steals Voice Lines From 15.ai". Tech Times. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
- ^ "15 on Twitter: "(I probably won't open Twitter again until I finally get this up and running.)" / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
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