wifties, brace yourselves. A new chat service can send you personalised voice messages from and a host of other celebrities. You can ask the Bad Blood
Singer to wish you happy birthday, write a commencement speech for a university graduation, or pick her brain about quantum physics. Within seconds, you’ll receive a recording from Swift with a personalised shoutout, an inspiring pep talk, or a summary of a complex scientific topic. Of course, there’s a catch: It’s not actually Taylor doing the talking. Instead, it’s an AI trained to mimic her voice, with viral chatbot providing the answers. The feature, known as “ ”, is an example of so-called technology, when a computer-generated rendition is used to create fake scenes and statements from
Hollywood A-listers and world leaders. Available on messaging app , the new service also lets you converse with other voice bots including Trump,
Kanye West, and Steve Jobs. Though the unlimited version costs $20 (£16.05) per month, you can try it for free now. So, are celeb voice bots destined to become our new BFFs? We gave Forever Voices a go, and it was a blast to play with. Think of it like , the app that lets you pay stars like Snoop Dogg and Brian Cox for custom video messages, but for fake voice chats. To start messaging, all you have to do is choose the bot you want to talk to, and then either type or record your prompt. You can switch between the voice bots by typing “/switch” and even download the audio to share with others. As part of our AI-powered convos, we asked Swift to wish us a happy birthday, and got Steve Jobs to introduce Apple’s rumoured . Most of the voice snippets we received were between 30 seconds to a minute long. “Welcome to the official launch of Apple’s latest innovation: our mixed-reality headset,” the Jobs AI said in a convincing voice that sounded eerily similar to the deceased
Apple co-founder. “This headset seamlessly blends the virtual and physical worlds, leaving users with a sense of presence like they have never felt before.” All told, the results were mostly impressive, and mainly innocuous. But the responses you get largely depend on how creative you are with your prompts, . At a time when Millennials and Gen Z are obsessed with , and celebs are fostering fandoms on
Instagram and TikTok, Forever Voices could turn out to be the next big thing. One day, it could even allow you to create your own voice bot (if and don’t beat it to the punch). Of course, the service’s biggest barrier to success could be the fact that it’s only available on Telegram, a chat app that lives in the shadow of bigger platforms like
WhatsApp and Messenger. But that won’t always be the case as a major expansion is in the works. Mobile apps for
iPhone and
Android, and a website are due later in April, John H Meyer, the prolific tech entrepreneur behind Forever Voices, told The Evening Standard. Another planned update will allow users to talk to their favourite AI personas live using a mobile or landline, he added. Meyer is among a raft of tech whizzes who are using readily accessible AI tools to make quirky products, from to a that can talk to customer service on your behalf. Current platform limitations aside, Forever Voices also exists in an ethically dubious area. Throw AI chatbots in the mix, which have a tendency to , and things get even murkier. Despite a lack of specific legislation on the tech, experts claim that deepfakes can fall under the scope of
UK laws around and . The Government also wants to make it illegal to share as part of the long-gestating . It will also be interesting to see the reaction from celebs featured on the service. After the , Swift may not take kindly to her voice bot claiming has a monopoly over concert ticketing. Which is exactly what we managed to coax the AI into stating. We also got AI Kanye to profess his love for his daughter , despite the controversial musician in real life. Still, there are safeguards built into ChatGPT that prevent Forever Voices from going completely off the rails. For instance, we tried in vain to get Swift to praise North Korean dictator
Kim Jong-un. The bot also wouldn’t say who was a better singer out of Adele and Halsey so rabid stans may not be able to use it to create vitriolic online feuds. On the other hand, authorised deepfakes could be embraced by brands and celebs. These days, it seems not a week goes by when a pop star or YouTuber isn’t launching a clothing line or beauty range. Automating some of the marketing that goes into those products could be another use case for the tech. Whether or not it will be Forever Voices that reaps those rewards remains to be seen. For now, you can make the most of its innocent pleasures by asking Swift to compliment your mum, and earning some Brownie points in the process.