OpenAI Bought Company That Offered A.I. Tools for Cloning Voices

OpenAI, the lab that solemnly promises to build safe AGI for all humanity, has quietly purchased Weights.gg — a startup that sells tools for cloning voices. According to two people familiar with the deal, the acquisition was kept under wraps, which is always reassuring when the technology in question is a gift to scammers and deepfake artists everywhere. Because nothing says 'responsible deployment' like buying a voice-mimicry startup without telling anyone.

Weights.gg’s product could, in theory, be used for legitimate purposes like restoring voices to those who have lost them. But in practice, it’s far more likely to be deployed by fraudsters impersonating CEOs or politicians — and OpenAI is now the proud owner of that capability. The lab’s existing misuse policies are about as porous as its security, as the recent TanStack supply chain attack demonstrated. So we can expect this tech to be integrated into ChatGPT within six months, probably with a disclaimer that says 'Do not use for fraud.'

The timing is exquisite: just as regulators are waking up to the dangers of synthetic media, OpenAI offers them a bigger target. The company’s defenders will argue that voice cloning is just another tool, but tools don’t usually come with a built-in incentive to deceive. So here’s to the next generation of personalised scams, courtesy of the world’s most cautious AI company.