ElevenLabs to launch AI for the creation of unique sound effects

Artificial intelligence (AI) voice startup ElevenLabs has teased the launch of AI sound effects, bringing about generated audio for the first time.

Following the release of Sora, an exciting new text-to-video AI tool by OpenAI, London-based ElevenLabs used Sora’s sound limitations to share their news.

On Sunday (Feb. 18) the startup took to X to share an insight into their new offering of adding sound effects to AI-generated video. Using content created by OpenAI’s Sora, the unicorn-status company created artificially generated sound effects to match the production:

We were blown away by the Sora announcement but felt it needed something…

What if you could describe a sound and generate it with AI? pic.twitter.com/HcUxQ7Wndg

— ElevenLabs (@elevenlabsio) February 18, 2024

ElevenLabs expanded further in a blog post on Monday (Feb. 19): “We used text prompts like ‘waves crashing,’ ‘metal clanging,’ ‘birds chirping,’ and ‘racing car engine’ to generate audio that we overlaid onto some of our favorite clips from the OpenAI Sora announcement.

“We’re thrilled by the excitement and support from the community and can’t wait to get it into your hands. We haven’t announced the public release date yet…”

The article goes on to link a sign-up form for those eager to be the first in the know when the product goes live.

This update comes after the January closing of an $80 million Series B round. This was co-led by prominent investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and entrepreneur Daniel Gross.

The latest funding brings the AI voice company’s total raised to $101 million and values the company at over $1 billion after it received a $100 million valuation in June of 2023.

Who are ElevenLabs?

Co-founded by Piotr Dabkowski, a former Google machine learning engineer, and Staniszewski, an ex-Palantir deployment strategist, ElevenLabs is a voice AI company.

The creators have explained how they were inspired by the ‘poor’ dubbing of Hollywood movies they watched growing up in their native Poland, so the co-founders set about designing a platform with the aim of eliminating ‘the linguistic barriers of content.’ Having launched in 2022, ElevenLabs claims its users have created more than 100 years’ worth of audio.

Featured Image: Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash 

Sophie Atkinson

Freelance Writer

Sophie Atkinson is a UK-based journalist and content writer, as well as a founder of a content agency which focuses on storytelling through social media marketing. She kicked off her career with a Print Futures Award which champions young talent working in print, paper and publishing. Heading straight into a regional newsroom, after graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism, Sophie started by working for Reach PLC. Now, with five years experience in journalism and many more in content marketing, Sophie works as a freelance writer and marketer. Her areas of specialty span a wide range, including technology, business, marketing, and finance.