New Delhi: Karnataka Government on Tuesday signed an MoU with ElevenLabs Inc., a global voice AI company, to explore the use of Voice AI for responsible innovation, citizen services and social impact, officials said.
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The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed through the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), under the Department of Electronics, Information Technology and Biotechnology, they said.
The partnership will focus on three areas -- developing a Voice AI safety framework, using AI-powered voice restoration to support people who have lost the ability to speak, and exploring Voice AI applications to make government services more accessible to citizens, an official statement said.
Speaking on the partnership, Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge said AI must ultimately be measured by the difference it makes to people's lives and Voice AI presents an opportunity to make government more accessible and citizen-centric.
"Through this partnership with ElevenLabs, Karnataka has an opportunity to work on both sides of that equation -- developing stronger safeguards for the responsible use of voice AI while exploring applications that can address real challenges faced by our citizens," he said.
As Voice AI becomes increasingly capable of generating realistic synthetic speech, Karnataka and ElevenLabs will work towards developing a platform-agnostic Voice AI safety framework for the State, officials said.
ElevenLabs will contribute its expertise to Karnataka's Responsible AI framework, with a specific focus on risks associated with voice and audio AI, they said.
The collaboration will examine safeguards around deepfake detection, audio provenance and watermarking, consent for voice cloning, restrictions on cloning public figures, and protection against voice fraud and impersonation, the statement said.
The partnership will also explore measures to protect public-facing government representatives and institutions from unauthorised voice cloning and include knowledge-sharing and capacity-building programmes for government officials and relevant agencies, it said.
Under the MoU, ElevenLabs will make available free lifetime licences under its One Million Voices programme to eligible citizens identified by the State Government or institutions and organisations working under its guidance, officials said.
The technology can enable eligible individuals to communicate using a synthetic version of their own voice, including in Kannada. The initiative will support people who have lost their ability to speak due to conditions including oral and throat cancer, and other neurological or degenerative conditions, they said.
KITS is already engaging with AIISH, Mysore (All India Institute of Speech and Hearing), to explore implementation of the initiative and identify eligible beneficiaries, officials said.
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The partnership will also explore how Voice AI can improve access to government services and information, including citizen helplines, grievance redressal, government information and entitlements, and voice-based interfaces in Kannada and other languages spoken across Karnataka, they added.
The State Government and ElevenLabs will identify suitable use cases for demonstration and pilot projects, the statement said.
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