Celebs License Their Voices To AI

ElevenLabs just made deals with Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, and other celebrities. AI voice technology just took a major leap forwar...

ElevenLabs just made deals with Michael Caine, Matthew McConaughey, and other celebrities.

AI voice technology just took a major leap forward. ElevenLabs, one of the world’s leading voice AI companies, has launched the Iconic Voice Marketplace — a platform allowing celebrities to officially license digital versions of their voices for use in film, gaming, education, and translation. Among the first stars to sign on are Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey.

The marketplace allows verified personalities to upload, authenticate, and monetize their vocal likeness through AI replicas. Caine, whose distinct tone has defined decades of cinema, views this as a way to preserve his legacy while exploring new creative frontiers. McConaughey, known for his distinctive southern drawl, will use his AI voice for multilingual storytelling and global brand collaborations.

From Hollywood to AI 

ElevenLabs confirmed that all celebrity models are built under strict consent and legal agreements, ensuring full ownership and control remains with the original voice owner. This means that for the first time, creators and studios can legally integrate a celebrity’s AI voice into projects without copyright disputes or deepfake risks.

Users can browse a catalog of approved voices, request a license for commercial or creative use, and generate voice-overs in multiple languages using ElevenLabs’ text-to-speech engine. The technology is capable of maintaining tone, emotion, and vocal inflection — even across translations. McConaughey’s AI voice, for instance, can deliver his exact speech style in Spanish or French without losing his signature cadence.

“Our goal is to make voice cloning ethical, traceable, and empowering,” said an ElevenLabs spokesperson. “This is about giving talent control over how their voice is used in the digital age.”

Unlike previous voice-cloning tools, ElevenLabs’ marketplace introduces a royalty-based compensation system. Celebrities and voice actors earn a percentage of every licensed use, similar to music streaming royalties. This model ensures recurring revenue while protecting against unauthorized exploitation. Each AI-generated clip is watermarked and logged through ElevenLabs’ compliance layer, enabling transparent auditing.

The company has also implemented a digital signature verification framework — meaning that any AI-generated voice must include a verifiable chain of consent from the original artist. This is a direct response to growing concerns about deepfakes and synthetic media impersonation.

The partnership represents a turning point for how creative industries might operate. With authentic celebrity voices accessible via AI, independent creators can bring premium production quality to podcasts, films, and video games without hiring A-list talent directly. Meanwhile, voice actors can license synthetic versions of themselves to work in parallel with ongoing projects, expanding their reach and revenue streams.

Studios are already exploring integrations. Content platforms like Audible and Spotify could adopt licensed AI voices to localize audiobooks or narration across languages, while gaming companies can dynamically script in-game dialogue with authentic celebrity tones. This opens a new economic layer for digital entertainment — where creativity and personality are scalable assets.

The rise of synthetic voices is pushing policymakers to refine intellectual-property law. Questions remain about the duration of voice rights after death, consent transfer in estates, and international licensing. ElevenLabs has publicly committed to collaborating with regulatory bodies and unions to ensure that “ethical AI” remains more than a buzzword — forming the foundation of a transparent, sustainable voice economy.

Legal experts compare this moment to the early music-streaming era, where platforms like Spotify reshaped rights management. The difference, they argue, is that voice replication involves personal identity — not just creative output — demanding stricter frameworks.

ElevenLabs is reportedly in talks with additional celebrities, sports figures, and voice actors to expand the marketplace beyond entertainment. Applications in customer service, education, and accessibility are already under pilot testing. The company also plans to introduce tools allowing small creators to train and license their own voices securely, potentially building a creator-owned economy of digital identities.