OpenAI quietly acquires AI voice cloning startup Weights.gg

OpenAI has made a quietly acquired Weights.gg, a startup specializing in AI-powered voice cloning known for cloning celebrity and public figure voices including Taylor Swift and Samuel L. Jackson.

The creator of ChatGPT has acquired the intellectual property of the San Francisco-based startup, while its six-person team was integrated into different parts of OpenAI, according to a New York Times article quoting unnamed sources.

The news of the acquisition came after Weights.gg announced in March it was closing down. The company previously operated a consumer app, Replay, for AI audio production, enabling users to create and share custom AI voice models. The platform has attracted attention for cloning copyrighted voices, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, as well as those of politicians, including U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joseph Biden.

Currently, it is unclear how Weight.gg’s technology will be incorporated with OpenAI’s products.

The company’s own voice cloning tech, Voice Engine, was presented in 2024 but was not released publicly due to safety concerns. Instead, the company limited access to selected partners through API integrations.

The acquisition comes as technology companies face growing legal pressure over AI voice training. Last week, journalists, podcasters and audiobook narrators filed biometric privacy lawsuits under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) against companies including Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, ElevenLabs, Adobe and Samsung Electronics.

The plaintiffs allege the companies trained AI voice systems using voiceprints collected from online content without consent.

It remains unclear how OpenAI plans to use Weights.gg’s technology internally or whether any consumer-facing voice cloning products will emerge from the acquisition. Sources cited by The New York Times said OpenAI is unlikely to release a public-facing cloning platform similar to Replay.

OpenAI has previously faced pressure over the risks posed by generative AI systems, including concerns from civil rights groups and copyright holders over misuse and unauthorized content generation.

The deal nevertheless highlights growing competition around synthetic voice generation as AI firms balance product development against rising concerns over consent, copyright and biometric privacy.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  generative AI  |  OpenAI  |  synthetic voice