Jerry Garcia’s estate has brought his voice back from the dead by partnering with AI company ElevenLabs to read audiobooks, e-books, articles, poetry, fan stories, PDFs, and more in 32 languages.
In addition to recreating Garcia’s voice for the Iconic Listening Experience on the ElevenReader app, the Jerry Garcia Foundation has also considered using the model for upcoming projects like narrated documentaries or audio art exhibits, according to Billboard.
“My father was a pioneering artist, who embraced innovative audio and visual technologies,” said Keelin Garcia, the Grateful Dead artist’s daughter and co-founder of the Jerry Garcia Foundation. “In the 1990s, my dad introduced me to the computer, digital art, and video games. When we traveled on concert tour, we played on Game Boy. At home, we’d have fun playing on the Macintosh in the studio where my father created his first digital art, and housed his MIDI guitar.”
This is just the latest example of a late celebrity’s voice being added to the ElevenReader app: previous voice models include actors like Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds, and Sir Laurence Olivier.
It’s also part of a trend in which late artists’ voices have been recreated for new works. Last year, the surviving members of The Beatles used AI technology to clean up a John Lennon vocal recording and release their final song, “Now and Then.” The estate of Edith Piaf has also partnered with Warner Music to recreate the late singer’s voice for an upcoming biopic.