You can talk to a Taylor Swift deepfake via a celebrity voice cloning service

Swifties, get ready. A new chat service can send you personalized voice messages from Taylor Swift and a host of other celebrities.

You can ask the Bad Blood singer to wish you a happy birthday, write a graduation speech for a university, or quiz her about quantum physics. Within seconds, you’ll receive a recording of Swift delivering a personalized greeting, an inspirational speech, or a summary of a complex scientific topic.

Of course, there is a catch: It is not Swift who is speaking. Instead, it is an AI trained to imitate her voice, with a viral chatbot ChatGPT to provide the answers. The function, known as “Forever voices“ is an example of so-called Deepfake Technology. It is a computer-generated representation used to create fake scenes and statements from Hollywood stars and world leaders.

The new service is available through messaging app Telegram and also allows you to communicate with other voice bots including Donald Trump, Kanye West and Steve Jobs. Although the unlimited version costs $20 (£16.05) a month, you can try it out for free.

So, will celebrity voice bots be our new best friends? We tried Forever Voices and it was a lot of fun. Think of it like Cameo, the app that lets you pay celebs like Snoop Dogg and Brian Cox for personalized video messages, but for fake voice chats.

To start messaging, all you have to do is select the bot you want to talk to and then type or record your prompt. You can switch between voice bots by typing “/switch” and even download the audio to share with others.

As part of our AI-powered conversations, we asked Swift to wish us a happy birthday and had Jobs introduce Apple’s rumored mixed reality headset. Most of the voice snippets we received were between 30 seconds and a minute long.

“Welcome to the official unveiling of Apple’s latest innovation: our mixed reality headset,” said Jobs’ AI in a compelling voice that sounded eerily similar to that of the late Apple co-founder. “This headset seamlessly blends the virtual and physical worlds, giving users a sense of presence like they’ve never felt before.”

Overall, the results were mostly impressive and mostly benign, but the responses you get will largely depend on how creative you are with your prompts, as we’ve seen with other chatbots.

At a time when Millennials and Generation Z are obsessed with Voice notesand celebrities foster fanbases on Instagram and TikTok, Forever Voices could turn out to be the next big trend. One day, it could even allow you to create your own voice bot (if Apple And Microsoft Don’t get ahead of him).

Of course, the biggest obstacle to the service’s success may be the fact that it’s only available on Telegram, a chat app that’s overshadowed by bigger platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger. But that won’t always be the case, with a major expansion in the works. Mobile apps for iPhone and Android, as well as a website, are due to launch in late April, John H. Meyer, the prolific tech entrepreneur behind Forever Voices, told the Evening Standard.

Another planned update will allow users to talk live with their favorite AI personas over a mobile or landline, he added.

Meyer is one of a number of tech experts who are using easily accessible AI tools to create unusual products. These include DIY data glasses and a robot lawyer who can speak to customer service on your behalf.

Aside from the current platform limitations, Forever Voices also operates in ethically questionable territory. When you throw AI chatbots into the mix, which have a tendency to spread misinformation, things get even more questionable.

Although there are no specific laws governing this technology, experts claim that deepfakes can fall under UK laws on malicious hoaxes and copyright infringement. The government also wants to make it illegal to pornographic deepfakes as part of the long-planned Online Security Act.

It will also be interesting to see the reaction of the celebrities who appear on the service. After the Fiasco over their recent tour ticket salesSwift might not like her voice bot claiming Ticketmaster has a monopoly on concert tickets. And that’s exactly what we were able to get out of the AI.

We also got AI Kanye to confess his love for his daughter TikTok videos from North West. This despite the controversial musician Tirade against their use of social media in real life.

Still, there are safeguards built into ChatGPT that prevent Forever Voices from getting completely out of hand. For example, we tried in vain to get Swift to praise North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The bot also wouldn’t say which of Adele and Halsey was the better singer., So fanatical fans cannot use it to stir up vicious online feuds.

On the other hand, authorized deepfakes could be picked up by brands and celebrities. These days, it seems like not a week goes by without a pop star or YouTuber launching a fashion or cosmetics line. Automating some of the marketing that goes into these products could be another use case for the technology.

Whether Forever Voices will reap those rewards remains to be seen. For now, you can make the most of the film’s innocent pleasures by asking Swift to compliment your mother—and earn some brownie points in the process.