Stories
ElevenLabs Partners With Karnataka To Restore Voices Using AI
- •Voice AI startup ElevenLabs signed an MoU with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society to help individuals who have lost their ability to speak communicate using a synthetic version of their voice.
- •Under the initiative, ElevenLabs will provide free lifetime licenses to eligible citizens identified by the state government through its One Million Voices program, supporting conditions like ALS and throat cancer.
- •The partnership will also explore using voice AI interfaces to improve public service delivery, citizen helplines, and government information access in Kannada and other regional languages.
- •Karnataka and ElevenLabs will collaborate on a platform-agnostic voice AI safety framework to address risks like deepfake detection, audio provenance, voice cloning consent, and fraud prevention.
- •India is currently ElevenLabs' largest market outside the United States, with the platform planning to expand its language support to all 22 official Indian languages.
Key Questions Answered
ElevenLabs and the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) signed an MoU on October 6, 2026, to use voice AI to help people who have lost their ability to speak communicate using a synthetic version of their own voice. Under the One Million Voices programme, eligible citizens identified by the state will receive free, lifetime licences to access this technology.
The partnership explores using voice AI interfaces in Kannada and other languages to improve citizen services, including helplines, grievance redressal, and access to government information and entitlements. This aims to make digital government services more intuitive and accessible for citizens.
Karnataka and ElevenLabs will work on a platform-agnostic voice AI safety framework focusing on risks like deepfake detection, audio provenance, watermarking, consent for voice cloning, and protection against voice fraud and impersonation. The framework also examines restrictions on cloning public figures and protecting institutions from unauthorized cloning.
