Michael Caine’s AI Voice Joins Ghostly Karaoke With Kafka’s Papers

KEY POINTS

•Franz Kafka wished for his unpublished works to be destroyed, but his friend Max Brod ignored this request.
•This decision allowed Kafka's influential writings to survive, raising questions about posthumous rights for artists.
•Michael Caine has joined ElevenLabs' AI voice marketplace, aiming to enhance storytelling through synthetic speech.

ElevenLabs, the AI audio startup that apparently has a closet full of voices, launched an “Iconic Voices” marketplace letting companies license digital copies of famous voices — and some dearly departed ones like Maya Angelou, Judy Garland, and Alan Turing, who once warned we’d be 'humbled' by AI and now voices AI reluctantly. Living legends Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine starred in this 2025 freak show. McConaughey is so sold he invested and will make his Spanish AI voice say 'muy bien' like a drunken border crosser. Meanwhile, Terry Pratchett’s unfinished novels met a steamroller death in 2017, a fate Kafka ironically missed when his executor ignored his cremation request. Welcome to the future, where estates double as ghost DJs.