AI Company Acquires Stan Lee's Voice And Likeness For Audiobooks

ElevenLabs has agreed with Stan Lee Universe to replicate Stan Lee’s voice and likeness through its ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace. The deal includes adding his likeness to a visual generator so users can create comic book panels featuring him. The marketplace also provides a collection of voices and likenesses of other famous people. The partnership will support a monthly series called “Stan Lee Book Club of the Month,” where AI uses Lee’s voice to narrate a different book each month, starting with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. A board member and lawyer for Stan Lee Universe said the goal is to meet fans where they are and make readers’ experience match Lee’s voice.

"ElevenLabs, an AI-driven speech synthesis company, has entered an agreement with Stan Lee Universe to replicate Lee's likeness and voice as part of its ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace. This is a collection of the voices and likenesses of famous people, including actors Michael Caine, Judy Garland, and David Hasselhoff. The agreement also puts Lee's likeness in its visual generator, allowing users to create comic book panels starring the late writer."

"The company is also using this deal to create a new monthly series called "Stan Lee Book Club of the Month," in which the AI will use Lee's voice to narrate a different book every month, with the first being Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island ."

""Stan always believed in meeting his fans where they were: in the pages of a comic, at a convention, or in a quick on-screen cameo," Chaz Rainey, lawyer and board member for Stan Lee Universe, said in a statement to Variety . "This partnership is a way of continuing that. Fans have always told us that when they read his comics, they hear the words in Stan's voice, and now, thanks to ElevenLabs, we can make that a reality.""

Read at Kotaku