This magical new app is an AI Ron Burgundy for your phone

Andrew Tarantola
·2 min read
the ElevenLabs reader app on an iPhone
ElevenLabs

Even as OpenAI delays its text to speech feature for ChatGPT, AI audio startup ElevenLabs released its Reader app for iOS on Wednesday, a model that promises to read aloud the words from virtually any content source, including news articles, PDFs, ePubs, and newsletters — even paste-in web links.

Users will be able to select from a library of “high quality, human-like voices,” to listen to and will be able to control how quickly the AI-modulated voice reads text back to them. The Reader app is available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch (anything running iOS and iPadOS 15 or later) for users in the U.S., U.K., and Canada to start. The company plans to release the software in the E.U. “in a couple weeks” around July 11. An Android version is currently in the works, and the company is offering a waitlist for interested users.

ElevenLabs is already considering updates for the service, including offline playback, RSS feed access, AI summarization, and the ability to share snippets with friends. The company is also looking to expand the spoken languages to all 29 tongues supported by its multilingual model.

“Creating best in class AI audio models is not enough,” ElevenLabs’ Wednesday announcement reads. “Creators need tools through which they can create. And consumers need interfaces through which they can consume audio.” The company will eventually begin charging for the service (given that its website states the first three months of usage are free) though there’s no word yet on what that subscription could cost.

ElevenLabs’ AI generated voice models are trained on public domain data, data acquired in agreements with commercial partners, and publicly available data, per a previous Digital Trends report. With them, the company is able to offer a variety of services, from dubbing and automatic translation to voice cloning and automatic narration — even generating AI voices for NPCs built on the Unreal Engine.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Huawei's Harmony aims to end China's reliance on Windows, Android

    Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China's software future - one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Centre in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony, an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after U.S. sanctions cut off support for Google's Android. While Huawei's recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for signs of advances in China's chip supply chain, the company has also quietly built up expertise in sectors crucial to Beijing's vision of technology self-sufficiency from operating systems to in-vehicle software.

  • How much a $1,000 investment in Apple stock 10 years ago would be worth today

    The stock has grown nearly 950% in the past decade.

  • Alibaba to close data centres in Australia, India amid expansion in Southeast Asia, Mexico

    Alibaba Group Holding's cloud computing unit plans to shut down its data centres in Australia and India, as the company prioritises infrastructure spending in other markets. Citing the move as part of its "infrastructure strategy update", Alibaba Cloud said the decision was made after a "careful assessment" amid new efforts to "expand investment in Southeast Asia and Mexico", the company said in a statement on Thursday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Alibaba Cloud plans to suspend it

  • Apple's Vision Pro launches in Hong Kong, drawing buyers from mainland China, Asia

    Apple's Vision Pro mixed-reality headset officially went on sale in Hong Kong on Friday, drawing local customers as well as those from mainland China and other regions, where the device is either more expensive or unavailable. Buyers who pre-ordered the Vision Pro, which starts at HK$27,999 (US$3,585) in Hong Kong, can pick up the product in stores. Others can buy online or book a demo session and purchase from physical Apple Store locations across the city. While new iPhones used to draw long q

  • Apple's iPhone shipments in China surge 40% in May amid aggressive discounting

    BEIJING (Reuters) -Apple's smartphone shipments in China rose nearly 40% in May from a year earlier, extending a rebound seen in April, data from a research firm affiliated with the Chinese government showed on Friday. Shipments of foreign-branded phones in China increased by 1.425 million in May to 5.028 million units from 3.603 million a year earlier，calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed. Although the data did not explicitly mention Apple, the company is the dominant foreign phone maker in China's smartphone-dominated market.

  • Nokia taps AI boom with $2.3 billion Infinera purchase

    Nokia's bid to buy US optical networking gear maker Infinera in a $2.3 billion deal puts the Finnish company on track to gain from the billions of dollars in investment pouring into data centres to cater to the rise of artificial intelligence. The deal would help Nokia to leapfrog Ciena and become the second largest vendor in the optical networking market with a 20% share, behind Huawei, which is benefiting from the minimal presence of Western companies in China. Nokia's move will allow the company to sell more equipment to big tech companies such as Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft as they invest billions of dollars in building new data centres to service the artificial intelligence boom.

  • Apple's AI Surge: Growth Potential With Limited Margin of Safety

    The surge, driven by new AI features, highlights growth potential, but narrow margin of safety calls for caution

  • Nokia to acquire Infinera in $2.3 billion deal to scale up optical network

    Shares of Infinera surged nearly 22%. The deal price of $6.65 per share represents a premium of 26.4% to Infinera's closing price of $5.26 on Thursday. Nokia will pay Infinera at least 70% in cash.

  • AI deals between Microsoft and OpenAI, Google and Samsung, in EU crosshairs

    BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI could face an EU antitrust investigation as regulators singled out their exclusivity clauses while Google's artificial intelligence deal with Samsung also triggered scrutiny. EU antitrust regulators will seek additional third-party views, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said on Friday. Vestager in March sent questionnaires to Microsoft, Google, Meta's Facebook and ByteDance's TikTok as well as other big tech companies related to their AI partnerships.

  • Apple’s China iPhone Shipments Jump 40% After Steep Discounts

    (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s iPhone shipments in China rose 40% in May, continuing a recent rebound fueled by heavy discounting from major retailers in the run-up to the country’s June shopping festival.Most Read from BloombergGavin Newsom Is Ready for the Biden EmergencyPanicked Emails, Gallows Humor: The Aftermath of Biden's Debate DisasterThe Question on Democrats’ Minds: How to Replace Biden?Biden’s Disastrous Debate Accelerates Doubts Over CandidacySupreme Court Overturns Chevron Rule in Blo

  • This 'tiny lifesaving device' gives you ECG readings at home — it has over 71,000 reviews

    Track your heart rhythm on the go with this “easy to use” device.

  • Apple Will Be the ‘Leader’ of the AI Consumer Experience

    Apple stock will continue to rise as the company’s generative artificial intelligence products, set to launch this fall, lead to an acceleration of growth in revenue and earnings, an Oppenheimer analyst says. Analyst Martin Yang increased his price target for Apple to $250 from $200, which implies a 21% increase from the stock’s closing price of $214.10 on Thursday. Yang wrote on Friday that he expects the stock to rise based on optimism over the company’s AI initiatives and how they are geared toward the consumer experience.

  • China’s AI companies are reportedly rationing the use of their services because they don’t have enough chips

    Blame the U.S. and its export controls blocking AI chip sales to China.

  • Paulina Gretzky throws husband Dustin Johnson a western-themed 40th birthday bash: A timeline of their relationship

    The 35-year-old model shared a video of the pro-golfer's private birthday celebration that featured a performance by Kid Rock.

  • An Emergency Room Visit In Spain While On Vacation Highlighted Some Shocking Differences Between Healthcare In The US And Elsewhere

    “I braced myself, thinking back to past experiences in American hospitals.”

  • Biden addresses poor debate performance, attacks Trump at Raleigh rally

    President Joe Biden on Friday addressed his poor performance in Thursday's presidential debate, just hours after he faltered on stage in his matchup against former President Donald Trump. During the rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a more energetic-appearing Biden acknowledged that he's not a young man, but contended that his morals and history prove that he's still fit for the job. Biden spent much of the rally pointing out what he called Trump's false claims during the debate about the economy, immigration and crime.

  • Lauren Sánchez Rocks an Itsy Bitsy Gold Bikini While Jet Skiing with Jeff Bezos

    She and her fiancé have reportedly been in Greece for a few weeks

  • Here Are The Best Twitter Jokes About The Presidential Debate Last Night

    "ok if you don't live in the US, please turn the debate off. This is our private family humiliation, and we'd all prefer you not stare."

  • Critics Clown Trump's 'IDIOTIC' Electric Planes Remarks: 'Dumb As A Box Of Rocks'

    The former president declared that Democrats don't have a "clue" before mixing up electricity and solar power.

  • Opinion: The real loser in Thursday’s debate

    CNN Opinion asked political contributors to weigh in on the first presidential debate of the 2024 race.