Sleep aid and meditation app Calm has used artificial intelligence to recreate the voice of actor Jimmy Stewart, which will be used for a new story told through the voice’s narration.
Stewart, who perhaps is best known for playing George Bailey in the classic Christmas movie It’s A Wonderful Life, will narrate the new story “It’s A Wonderful Sleep Story,” which was made available on the Calm app on Tuesday. The new story comes over 25 years after Stewart died in 1997; the project received permission from Stewart’s family and his estate, which is managed by CMG Worldwide.
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“We are excited for our dad to be the voice of Calm’s latest Sleep Story,” read a statement from Kelly Stewart Harcourt, one of Stewart’s daughters. “It’s amazing what technology can do and wonderful to see Dad’s legacy live on this holiday season in new ways, like helping people find restful sleep and sweet dreams.”
Tina Xavie, chief marketing officer of CMG Worldwide, described Stewart’s voice as “one of the most iconic” in film history and that advanced technology allows people today to hear his voice again.
Stewart’s voice was recreated through a collaboration with an AI voice-cloning startup Respeecher, which hired a voice actor to read the lines of the story in Stewart’s speech style. Respeecher CEO Alex Serdiuk stated that the company went about the project “according to high ethical standards and respect.”
“James Stewart is one of the most remarkable actors in U.S. history,” Serdiuk said. “Recreating his voice with AI was both a huge responsibility and an honor for Respeecher. It was a way to pay tribute to his incredible career and all the good memories he left to people.”
Despite the best intentions of Calm and Respeecher, many people on social media were not on board with recreating a person’s voice using technology, specifically artificial intelligence. Some users described the feature as “creepy.”
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Beyond Stewart’s voice in “It’s A Wonderful Sleep Story,” Respeecher has also worked on recreating other celebrity voices for other projects, including Mark Hamill’s voice of Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian and James Earl Jones’s voice of Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The app Calm has collaborated with other celebrities in the past, who narrate stories meant to aid one’s sleep. These various celebrities include 13 Going on 30’s Jennifer Garner, Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy, and Titanic’s Kate Winslet, among others.
