Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey have licensed their voices to AI — but not every ‘iconic’ voice on the platform can consent
The hidden cost of celebrity AI voices
· TechRadarFeatures By Becca Caddy published 14 March 2026
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Name a more recognizable voice than Michael Caine. He’s narrated documentaries, starred in movies and, to many, has one of the most iconic voices of all time. Now his voice is available on demand — to anyone willing to pay for it.
In early March 2026, AI company ElevenLabs announced that Caine had licensed his voice to them, which means it’s available through two of their products — ElevenReader, an app that lets you listen to any text read aloud in a voice of your choosing, and the Iconic Marketplace, which is ElevenLabs' licensing platform for celebrity voices.
He's not alone. Matthew McConaughey (who has also invested in the company) is using ElevenLabs to translate his newsletter into Spanish, but in his voice. ElevenLabs says there are more than 25 other iconic voices currently available on the platform, including Judy Garland, Art Garfunkel, Liza Minnelli, Alan Turing and Maya Angelou.
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If you noticed that some of those people are no longer alive and are wondering how they consented to this, well, they didn’t. We’ll come back to that.
What is ElevenLabs?
Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs is an AI audio company specializing in generating speech that sounds almost indistinguishable from a real human voice. Its tools are used by podcasters, publishers, game developers, and other businesses. It’s grown rapidly and is now one of the most prominent companies in the AI audio space.
The Iconic Marketplace is more on the business side of things. The official pitch is that it's "a curated, two-sided platform where companies can request access to iconic talent for projects and content." This means that talent retains ownership of their voice and companies and creative teams can request approval to use it for specific projects. In theory, it’s built on consent, compensation and credit.
Caine's own statement also leans into the empowerment framing: "It's not about replacing voices; it's about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere. I've spent a lifetime telling stories. ElevenLabs will help the next generation tell theirs."
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