Ukrainian AI startup Respeecher, known for its voice cloning technology for Netflix, HBO, and Paramount, will teach artificial intelligence to communicate in Ukrainian. The startup has launched a Ukrainian-language Text-to-speech service, which, unlike foreign analogues, does not have a «plastic» accent and can communicate in Surzhyk.
Ukrainian AI startup Respeecher, known for its voice cloning technology for Netflix, HBO, and Paramount, will teach artificial intelligence to communicate in Ukrainian. The startup has launched a Ukrainian-language Text-to-speech service, which, unlike foreign analogues, does not have a «plastic» accent and can communicate in Surzhyk.
Respeecher says that any user will be able to convert their text into audio in Ukrainian after registering on the platform. After that, they get access to a library of voices: of different gender, age, timbre and tonality. From the catalog, you can choose the voice in which the text will sound depending on its purpose: advertising, announcement, audiobook or podcast. For companies that have AI assistants and chatbots, there is an opportunity to integrate via API with the new Ukrainian-language service.
The user types text and receives audio in Ukrainian in real time. The delay in sound transmission is 100-200 milliseconds, which is «faster than clicking a mouse,» the developers assure. You can also train a speech model on the voice of a company employee or a famous person so that the AI assistant or chatbot sounds exactly like that voice.
The founders of Respeecher are convinced that it is easier to convey the originality and plasticity of Ukrainian to native speakers, so by training the model on hundreds of hours of recordings, they are able to understand where speech stops sounding natural and becomes robotic. According to them, foreign platforms are not inferior to their solution in speed, but the quality is worse because the voices sound unnatural.
«We wanted avatars, chatbots, or AI assistants of banks and telecom companies in Ukraine to finally speak real Ukrainian: with all its plasticity, uniqueness, dialects, and even a surzhyk, and most importantly, without a plastic accent, as foreign AI services do now. And who better to create voice AI models in Ukrainian than a non-Ukrainian startup that has been well-trained on Hollywood companies like HBO, Paramont, and Netflix? Therefore, the Respeecher team, with hundreds of hours of recordings in Ukrainian, trained the LLM model so that real Ukrainian would sound in all brands and chatbots,» said Dmytro Belyevtsov, COO and co-founder of Respeecher.
For ethical reasons, the startup does not allow the cloning of a person’s voice without their consent. Instead, voice actors agree to have their voice added to the catalog and receive a 25% royalty. To prevent abuse of the technology, all audio is moderated.
Earlier, Respeecher co-founder Oleksandr Serdyuk reported that his company worked on 60 projects in 2024. In particular, on films that won Golden Globe and Oscar awards.
Recall that the Ukrainian company Respeecher was included in the credits of Cyberpunk 2077. As it became known later, the company helped recreate the voice of actor Miłogost Reczek, who died in 2021. In the game, he gave voice to the character Viktor Vector. According to Serdyuk, this technology can transform the field of voice acting without leaving people «overboard.»
