Who does your voice belong to? For musician Holly Herndon, the answer is ‘everyone’

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For Document’s Winter 2021/Resort 2022 issue, the musician envisions the future of intellectual property in the era of vocal deepfakes I’m on Zoom with experimental musician Holly Herndon, and her deepfake twin is singing to me. This is Holly+: an AI-driven instrument that takes audio recordings and reinterprets them in her voice, making disembodied collaborations like the one I’m hearing—a hauntingly realistic cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” sung by Herndon’s vocal model—not only possible, but available for others to experiment with via her website. When we speak, Herndon is slated to debut the new version of Holly+ we’re listening to, which has the capability to transform audio in real time. “My partner Mat [Dryhurst] can sing through my voice. When we first got it working and he was doing it, I had to leave the room because I was like, This is too creepy. It was my voice, but with a hint of his British accent,” she laughs. “At the same time, it’s so exciting to imagine all the dif

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Who does your voice belong to? For musician Holly Herndon, the answer is ‘everyone’

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