15.ai

15.ai
Type of site
Artificial intelligence, speech synthesis, machine learning, deep learning
Available inEnglish
Founder(s)15
URL15.ai
CommercialNo
RegistrationNone
LaunchedInitial release: March 12, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-03-12)
Stable release: v24.2.1
Current statusUnder maintenance
Part of a series on
Artificial intelligence
Major goals
Approaches
Applications
Philosophy
History
Glossary

15.ai was a freeware artificial intelligence web application, launched in 2020, that generated text-to-speech voices from fictional characters from various media sources.[1][2][3][4] Created by a pseudonymous developer under the alias 15, the project used a combination of audio synthesis algorithms, speech synthesis deep neural networks, and sentiment analysis models to generate emotive character voices faster than real-time.

In early 2020, 15.ai appeared online as a proof of concept of the democratization of voice acting and dubbing.[5] Its gratis nature, ease of use without user accounts, and improvements over existing text-to-speech implementations made it popular.[2][1][3] Some critics and voice actors questioned the legality and ethicality of making such technology so readily accessible.[6]

The site was credited as the impetus behind the popularization of AI voice cloning (also known as audio deepfakes) in content creation. It was embraced by Internet fandoms such as My Little Pony, Team Fortress 2, and SpongeBob SquarePants.[7][8]

Several commercial alternatives appeared in the following years. In January 2022, the company Voiceverse NFT plagiarized 15.ai's work as part of their platform.[9][10][11]

In September 2022, a year after its last stable release, 15.ai was taken offline. As of November 2024, the website was still offline, with the creator's most recent post being dated February 2023.[12]

  1. ^ a b Zwiezen, Zack (January 18, 2021). "Website Lets You Make GLaDOS Say Whatever You Want". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Ruppert, Liana (January 18, 2021). "Make Portal's GLaDOS And Other Beloved Characters Say The Weirdest Things With This App". Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Clayton, Natalie (January 19, 2021). "Make the cast of TF2 recite old memes with this AI text-to-speech tool". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  4. ^ Morton, Lauren (January 18, 2021). "Put words in game characters' mouths with this fascinating text to speech tool". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  5. ^ Ng, Andrew (April 1, 2020). "Voice Cloning for the Masses". The Batch. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference wccftech was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference automaton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Denfaminicogamer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Williams, Demi (January 18, 2022). "Voiceverse NFT admits to taking voice lines from non-commercial service". NME. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ @fifteenai (February 23, 2023). "If all goes well, the next update should be the culmination of a year and a half of nonstop work put into a huge number of fixes and major improvements to the algorithm. Just give me a bit more time – it should be worth it" (Tweet) – via Twitter.