Fiverr Debuts Synthetic Voice Tool for Voiceover Auditions

Freelance marketplace Fiverr has unveiled an AI tool for companies to audition voiceover artists before hearing them read a line. The new AI Auditions feature lets the voiceover artist train a synthetic version of their voice that companies can test their scripts on, streamlining the hiring process and enabling the performer to “audition” for far more roles than their time would normally allow.

AI Audition

Voiceover artists registered with Fiverr already provide samples of their work for potential employers to hear. They can now augment those samples by training the new Voice Auditions engine to mimic their voice even when saying words and sentences they never recorded. Clients looking for a voiceover artist can then plug a performer’s synthetic voice into a sample section of their script to get an idea of what the voiceover artist might sound like speaking their words, albeit imperfectly. The idea is that the company can pick out who they want to hire, or at least narrow down the options, before contacting the voiceover artist. The AI Auditions feature is limited to some of the more successful voiceover artists on Fiverr as part of a beta test, with a broader rollout coming when ready.

“At Fiverr, we fundamentally believe that artificial intelligence needs to be implemented in a way that will support and enhance human capabilities and knowledge. The future of work is one where AI supports people and allows them to do more with less effort,” Fiverr creative verticals group manager Yoav Hornung said. “Fiverr has an incredibly large and talented community of voiceover artists, and we are always looking for new and innovative ways to support them in their work. The implementation of AI Auditions will allow them to focus on work they already have on their plate and have been paid to do, rather than audition for roles that they have not secured yet.”

Synthetic Reality

AI-generated speech mimicking real people is cropping up more as the entertainment industry and the burgeoning metaverse all see opportunities for the technology. Startups like Lovo and Veritone have their own voiceover marketplaces with synthetically generated voices that Fiverr’s new service looks like it could take on, with Veritone recently scoring a deal with iHeartMedia to make translated audio content that sounds like the original speaker. But, there’s an enormous and growing market for the technology. Plenty of celebrities have had synthetic versions of their voices used, sometimes posthumously. AI versions of Andy Warhol, Val Kilmer, Anthony Bourdain, and a young Luke Skywalker have been heard on-screen in the last year or so. You can even hold a virtual conversation and hear synthetic versions of William Shatner and Albert Einstein online. Fiverr’s clients may be looking for promotional video narrators or website tour guides rather than a Hollywood movie star, but synthetic voice generation has a wide application that’s still very early in its deployment.

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