Jerry Garcia Can Read to You Via a New AI Tool. It May Just Be the Beginning

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The Grateful Dead singer's voice can be heard in books, audio messages, and more. "It's a gift to his fans, a chance to hear his voice and feel connected to him," says the agency that works with Garcia's estate

Next year marks the 30th anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s death. But a new AI initiative, as well as programs it could spawn, aims to keep the Grateful Dead leader’s presence alive.

This summer, ElevenLabs, a two-year-old software company known for its advanced, lifelike voice AI tools, announced a free app that allows fans of Judy Garland, Maya Angelou, Burt Reynolds, James Dean, and Sir Laurence Olivier to listen to AI-recreated versions of their voices read books, articles, poems, and other content. As of this week, Garcia became the newest — and first music-connected — member of what the company calls its “Iconic Voices” program.

With ElevenLabs’ Reader App, Deadheads can listen to an AI-generated version of Garcia’s voice read to them, and in 32 different languages to boot. (Imagine Garcia wading through, say, Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test? Or a Ken Kesey novel?) “We felt he represented a certain time and an era of a certain type of music, and the sound of his voice is distinctive and different than what we already had on the platform,” says Dustin Blank, head of partnerships at ElevenLabs. “I feel it adds a deeper layer to certain types of texts.”

According to Tina Xavie, whose Xavie Agency works with the Garcia estate (among others) on branding and licensing ventures, the AI project is a natural extension of Garcia’s appeal. “Jerry cherished connecting with his fans,” she says. “It’s a gift to his fans, a chance to hear his voice and feel connected to him.” But like Blank, she also sees it as a way to introduce Garcia to anyone born after the singer-guitarist died. “We’ve noticed a strong interest in AI among younger generations,” says Xavie. “To connect Jerry’s legacy with this demographic, we’re leveraging AI technology to make his voice accessible. By using his voice to read a book, or send a personal message, we hope to introduce him to a new generation of fans.”

When ElevenLabs first approached the Garcia estate, Blank admits that the newness of AI technology required some explaining and convincing. “They had to understand what we were trying to achieve and what type of guardrails are in place,” he says.

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“While we weren’t overly worried, we were cautious about the potential for misuse of the technology,” Xavie says. “We wanted to ensure that Jerry’s voice wasn’t used to generate content that was inconsistent with his character or beliefs, or that could harm fans.” Blank says the company has a “a profanity filter and a filter where you cannot generate text that would cause self-harm or endanger a child.” Additionally, the content can only be streamed.

According to Xavie, all of the Garcia family members agreed to the deal, but the Jerry Garcia Foundation, headed by Garcia’s youngest daughter, Keelin, led the charge on the project. “My father was a pioneering artist who embraced innovative audio and visual technologies,” Keelin Garcia said in a statement. “Jerry was a visionary, an adventurer, and a lover of technology,” Xavie adds, “and ElevenLabs has the best text-to-voice technology setting the standard in the talent space in AI.”

Blank says the rendering of Garcia’s voice for the app went through 30 different iterations before the company felt they’d nailed it. But Blank clarifies that the goal was not to make anyone feel as if Garcia himself was reading the words. “We’re very clear that these are AI narrators meant to add a different or unique experience to that piece of content,” he says. “We want people to enjoy the content that sounds like the person, or is a recreated person, but is not them. There’s a difference there, just like when Jerry’s face is on a T-shirt, you don’t want people to think it’s actually him on the shirt.”

When the Garcia voice tool was announced this week, the Garcia Foundation hinted it could be used for audio art or narrated documentaries. Without getting specific, Xavie feels the potential is as limitless as a particularly lengthy “Dark Star.” She cites “powering immersive concert experiences, enabling virtual performances, creating interactive fan experiences, and even facilitating virtual meet-and-greets at charity events, which the Foundation does often.”