Respeecher is a Ukrainian software company developing

speech synthesis Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ...

software enabling one person to speak in the voice of another particular person using

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

History

Respeecher was founded in February 2018. A year later, the startup completed the

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

LIFT Labs Accelerator, powered by Techstars. They received $1.5 million in startup funding in early March 2020. Since 2018, Respeecher have raised over $3 million in investments and share their technology with Hollywood movie studios, video game creators, and other businesses. The Respeecher team, most of which is located in Ukraine, was able to continue working despite the full-scale

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

in February 2022. In December 2020, Respeecher was credited in the season finale of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

streaming TV series ''The Mandalorian'' for synthesizing the voice of young Luke Skywalker. In February 2021, they worked on the voice of

Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized a ...

for the Super Bowl commercial. In September 2021, the Respeecher team was awarded with an Emmy for interactive documentary for their work on

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

's voice (combined with the dialogue being performed by another actor) in the internet short film "In Event of Moon Disaster". In February 2022, Respeecher was credited in "Chapter 6" of ''The Book of Boba Fett'', for providing the synthetic voice of young Luke Skywalker. In March 2022, Respeecher enabled cross-lingual singing voice cloning for

Aloe Blacc Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III (born January 7, 1979), known professionally by his stage name Aloe Blacc (), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. He is best known for his singles "I Need a Dollar", " The Man", which topped the charts in th ...

's tribute to

Avicii Tim Bergling (; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii (, ), was a Swedish DJ, remixer and music producer. At the age of 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first rec ...

. On June 27, 2022, the company created an AI voice for Darth Vader based on actor

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

' archive recordings from earlier Star Wars projects in the TV series ''Obi-Wan Kenobi''. In November 2022, the first synthetic speech artist was credited in Sony’s video game ''

God of War Ragnarök ''God of War Ragnarök'' is an action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released worldwide on November 9, 2022, for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, marking the first cro ...

''. In February 2023, Respeecher, alongside

OpenAI OpenAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company conducts research in the field of AI with the stated goal of promo ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, was among the initial 10 companies to pledge commitment to the

Partnership on AI Partnership on AI (full name Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society) is a nonprofit coalition committed to the responsible use of artificial intelligence. It researches best practices for artificial intelligence system ...

's community-driven framework. This framework aims to guide the ethical and responsible development, creation, and sharing of synthetic media and AI technology. In October 2023,

CD Projekt CD Projekt S.A. () is a Polish video game developer, publisher and distributor based in Warsaw, founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwiński and Kiciński were video game retailers before they founded the company, whi ...

announced they used Respeecher to synthesize the voice of

Miłogost Reczek Miłogost Reczek (10 February 1961 – 14 December 2021) was a Polish voice actor. He was known, among other roles, as the Polish dub voice for Homer Simpson in ''The Simpsons Movie'', Felix the Cat in ''Baby Felix'' and as Vesemir and Thaler i ...

, who died in 2021, for the Polish language release of the ''

Cyberpunk 2077 ''Cyberpunk 2077'' is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. Set in Night City, an open world set in the ''Cyberpunk'' universe, players assume the role of a customisable mercenary kno ...

'' expansion ''Phantom Liberty''. They say they did this with permission from Reczek’s family. In 2023, the company actively contributed to the development of the "Zvook" - acoustic sensor system, a project endorsed by Braive1, tailored to meet the specific requirements of the

Armed Forces of Ukraine , imports = , exports = , history = , ranks = Military ranks of Ukraine , country=Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Збро́йні си́ли Украї́ни), most commonly know ...

. Our representatives played a pivotal role by providing expertise in automation and signal identification, enhancing the system's capability to discern the origin of impacts and effectively contribute to military operations.{{Citation , title=#Brave1 Система акустичних сенсорів Zvook , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYS3hrKfVKU , access-date=2024-01-18 , language=en

References

Software companies of Ukraine AI companies