Aug X launched Augie, an AI-powered video creation platform that incorporates a voice clone feature to read ad text without reserving a recording studio.
By partnering with ElevenLabs, Aug X allows users to record their voice or someone else’s voice and clone it for use in other short videos. Aimed primarily at marketers and social media teams, the Augie platform enables people to quickly add narration, photos, text, and music to videos without needing to learn audio and video editing.
Jeremy Toeman, founder of Aug X, said the company wanted to add a voice cloning feature after realizing some people don’t like talking into a microphone or recording voiceovers.
“You’d be surprised how many people who have used our voice cloning feature have come up to us and thanked us because they didn’t like recording the narration,” he says.
In a demo for the edge, Toeman says that users can write or upload a script to Augie and then use a pre-recorded voice (people need to record a short snippet of their voice saying anything) or choose one from their library. That voice will then read the script with the tone, serious, enthusiastic, creepy, etc., which can be adjusted based on the mood of the video.
Users can also choose from a library of photos (Photos licensed from Getty’s Aug X) or use AI-generated images to add to the video.
Toeman envisions marketing teams producing short videos without the need to book their company spokesperson’s time in the recording studio.
Augie went into public beta in May. For now, everyone who uses Augie has access to the voice cloning feature. Toeman says that eventually, it could limit the length and quality of video and the number of voice clones from non-paying subscribers due to the cost of running voice clone servers with its partners.
Voice cloning is not new; Samsung even lets people use an AI voice to answer calls, and now companies like Aug X are integrating the technology into more comprehensive services. After a faked Drake song featuring an AI-generated version of the rapper’s voice went viral, it helped reignite concerns about copyright and illegal use of someone else’s likeness.
“We’ve thought about what could go wrong beforehand, so we’re being very careful about who gets to use the pre-recorded voice to clone,” says Toeman.
He added that recorded voices, unlike those that are part of Augie’s larger library, will only be available to individual accounts. So, someone else in the same organization has to re-record her spokesperson’s voice into their Augie account to clone her speech. Users cannot upload recordings and the platform will only accept voices recorded with a live microphone. So don’t put your ex’s voice on speakerphone so you can fake a call with an oddly helpful friend it won’t work with Augie.
The company is also working with its voice cloning partner ElevenLabs to identify AI-generated voices and video.
