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Voicemod, the AI-powered voice-modifying platform that lets users change the tone and sound of their voice and make use of sound effects, will add the likes of Star Wars and Marvel characters to the mix.
The company
said Friday it would incorporate soundboards from Star Wars and Marvel projects onto its platform, allowing its 5.7 million monthly active users to use quotes and sound effects from those projects as they communicate on social and gaming platforms such as Twitch and Discord. The first Star Wars soundboards, from “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” are available as of Friday, while others from Star Wars and Marvel will be available at a later date.
It does not yet appear that users can use the soundboards on Voicemod to make their own voices sound akin to Djn Djarin or Grogu, with the tools more like “sound memes” that users can deploy in response to a message.
But Disney’s decision to license IP to an AI-related company reflects the increasing willingness of entertainment companies to associate their intellectual property with artificial intelligence — which many in Hollywood have viewed as a third rail.
It follows Disney’s move last year to license an array of its characters for OpenAI’s Sora video generator as part of its short-lived $1 billion investment deal, which ended earlier this year after OpenAI decided to shutter Sora. It also comes after Hasbro licensed several of its characters’ voices to ElevenLabs for advertisers to pay to use in marketing campaigns.
“Gameplay and streaming are inherently social, and a lot of that experience comes down to how people react and interact in the moment,” Jaime Bosch, Voicemod’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “These soundboards build on those interactions by giving users a way to bring sounds from Marvel and Star Wars into those moments, whether they’re joking with friends, reacting on stream, or creating content. The shared feelings that come from sounds people know and love generate an instant sense of belonging.”
