We first developed Voice Engine in late 2022, and have used it to power the preset voices available in the text-to-speech API⁠(opens in a new window) as well as ChatGPT Voice and Read Aloud⁠. At the same time, we are taking a cautious and informed approach to a broader release due to the potential for synthetic voice misuse. We hope to start a dialogue on the responsible deployment of synthetic voices, and how society can adapt to these new capabilities. Based on these conversations and the results of these small scale tests, we will make a more informed decision about whether and how to deploy this technology at scale.

To better understand the potential uses of this technology, late last year we started privately testing it with a small group of trusted partners. We've been impressed by the applications this group has developed. These small scale deployments are helping to inform our approach, safeguards, and thinking about how Voice Engine could be used for good across various industries. A few early examples include:

We recognize that generating speech that resembles people's voices has serious risks, which are especially top of mind in an election year. We are engaging with U.S. and international partners from across government, media, entertainment, education, civil society and beyond to ensure we are incorporating their feedback as we build. The partners testing Voice Engine today have agreed to our usage policies⁠, which prohibit the impersonation of another individual or organization without consent or legal right. In addition, our terms with these partners require explicit and informed consent from the original speaker and we don’t allow developers to build ways for individual users to create their own voices. Partners must also clearly disclose to their audience that the voices they're hearing are AI-generated. Finally, we have implemented a set of safety measures, including watermarking to trace the origin of any audio generated by Voice Engine, as well as proactive monitoring of how it's being used. We believe that any broad deployment of synthetic voice technology should be accompanied by voice authentication experiences that verify that the original speaker is knowingly adding their voice to the service and a no-go voice list that detects and prevents the creation of voices that are too similar to prominent figures.

Voice Engine is a continuation of our commitment to understand the technical frontier and openly share what is becoming possible with AI. In line with our approach to AI safety⁠ and our voluntary commitments⁠, we are choosing to preview but not widely release this technology at this time. We hope this preview of Voice Engine both underscores its potential and also motivates the need to bolster societal resilience against the challenges brought by ever more convincing generative models. Specifically, we encourage steps like: