NEW YORK – Can you think of a better way to get into the spirit of Halloween than listening to Washington Irving’s short story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow read by the ghost of James Dean?
The actor’s career may have ended tragically in 1955, but his estate is keeping his pay cheque alive through artificial intelligence (AI).
Alongside the estates of Judy Garland, Laurence Olivier and Burt Reynolds, it signed with AI voice-cloning start-up ElevenLabs in July as part of the company’s “iconic voices” project.
The actors now narrate books, articles and other text material put into ElevenLabs’ Reader app.
From voiceover work to “digital human” acting jobs and immersive stage shows, AI is firing up the dead celebrity industry.
The industry has proved lucrative. Despite pop star Michael Jackson being about US$500 million (S$645 million) in debt at the time of his death, his estate has amassed a fortune of US$2 billion, according to People magazine, thanks to projects such as a jukebox musical and even posthumous albums featuring work made while he was alive.
Yet advances in AI mean a late artist like Jackson can still generate new art.
Intellectual property lawyer Mark Roesler has represented more than 3,000 celebrities, most of whom are dead, and has made some 30,000 deals on their behalf since founding his company CMG Worldwide more than four decades ago.
Among current clients including American civil rights activists Rosa Parks and Malcolm X, he has negotiated musician Jerry Garcia his own ElevenLabs deal.
There are two key ways a living celebrity makes money, Mr Roesler says.
The first is personal services, which, for a musician like Prince, would have been income from his concerts and songs.
The second is intellectual property, which is independent of
