Karnataka Government Partners with ElevenLabs to Expand Kannada Voice AI

A new partnership in Karnataka will focus on taking voice artificial intelligence into Kannada-language skilling, citizen services and grievance redressal, while also supporting work on responsible AI and voice restoration.

The memorandum of understanding was signed between ElevenLabs co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski and Priyank Kharge, Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology, here on Tuesday.

The agreement was entered into with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society, or KITS, which is the nodal implementation agency for the Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology.

Focus on Kannada voice AI

ElevenLabs is a New York-based firm specialising in generative voice AI, speech synthesis, voice cloning and conversational AI agents.

The partnership is expected to support the adoption of voice AI in Kannada across skilling, citizen services and grievance redressal.

It will also cover responsible AI and voice restoration, widening the scope of the agreement beyond voice-generation technology.

“India has been at the frontier of voice experiences and part of our story at ElevenLabs from the start,” Staniszewski said while speaking at a summit.

The summit also marked ElevenLabs’ shift beyond voice generation towards conversational AI that can listen, understand and complete real-world workflows.

India is the company’s second-largest market

India is ElevenLabs’ second-largest market outside of the U.S., according to the company.

Businesses in the country recorded 100 million conversations on ‘ElevenAgents’ over the past year, with more than 70% of those conversations in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

The company said more than 25,000 Indian developers and businesses are actively building with its API each month.

ElevenLabs claimed that this figure has risen by roughly 2.5x over the past year.

These figures provide the company’s stated context for its focus on Indian languages and its expansion into conversational AI.

Voice restoration programme

ElevenLabs said it has committed to restoring 1 million voices of people who have permanently lost their voice due to conditions including ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, throat cancer and multiple sclerosis.

The firm is working on this effort with partners including the ALS Care and Support Foundation, Organisation for Rare Diseases India, ‘Yes, We Can’, Nipman Foundation and The Quantum Hub.

The company also said its wider impact programme has provided free technology to over 75 NGOs in India.

At the summit, former radio and entertainment professional Sapna Rana shared her experience after losing her ability to speak following the development of ALS.

Rana said that recreating her voice has allowed her to communicate and create again.

Source: The Hindu