The Aug X Augie platform has released a new AI-powered video creation feature that includes audio reproduction without booking a recording studio.
Aug X, in partnership with ElevenLabs, allows users to record and reproduce their own or someone else's voice for use in other short videos, and the Augie platform, primarily aimed at marketers and social media teams, allows people to quickly add narration, images, text, and music to videos without having to learn Audio and video editing.
Jeremy Twiman, founder of Aug X, said the company wanted to add the voice-cloning feature after realizing that some people didn't like speaking into a microphone or recording audio clips.
"You'd be surprised how many people using our voice-over feature came up to us and said thank you because they didn't like the narration recording," he says.
In a demo on The Verge, Toeman says users can either write or upload a script to Augie and then use a pre-recorded audio (people need to record a short snippet of their voice saying anything) or choose one from its library, and that audio will then read the script In tone, serious, spirited, creepy, etc., which can be adjusted according to the mood of the video.
Users can also choose from a library of images—Aug X licenses the images from Getty—or use AI-generated images to add to the video.
Toeman envisions marketing teams converting short videos without having to book spokesperson time in the recording studio.
Augie went into public beta in May and at the moment everyone using Augie has access to the voice cloning feature.
Ultimately, Toeman says, it may limit video length, quality, and number of audio reproduced for non-paying subscribers because of the cost of running audio reproduction servers with its partners.
Audio reproduction isn't new, and now companies like Aug X are working to incorporate the technology into more full-featured services.
After a deepfake Drake song that featured an AI-generated version of the rapper's voice went viral, it helped reignite concerns about copyright and the illegal use of another person's likeness.
"We thought ahead of time about what could go wrong, so we're really careful about who can use pre-recorded audio for reproduction," says Tweman.
He added that the recorded voices, unlike the part in Augie's larger library, will only be available to individual accounts. So another person in the same organization has to re-record the voice of their spokesperson on their Augie account to reproduce their speech. Users cannot upload recordings, and the platform will only accept sounds recorded with a live microphone.
So don't put your ex on speakerphone so you can fake a call with a friend that's oddly useful that won't work for Augie.
The company is also working with its audio cloning partner ElevenLabs to identify AI-generated sounds and videos.