OpenAI acquires Weights.gg, a startup specializing in celebrity voice cloning technology, showcasing a modern office workspac

Editorial illustration for OpenAI acquires Weights.gg, a six‑person startup for celebrity voice cloning

OpenAI acquires Weights.gg, a six‑person startup for...

OpenAI acquires Weights.gg, a six‑person startup for celebrity voice cloning

By AI Daily Post Edited by Brian Petersen, Editor-in-Chief

May 16, 2026 • Updated: May 19, 2026 • 2 min read

OpenAI slipped a six‑person startup into its ranks earlier this year, buying Weights.gg, a niche firm that let users share AI models for mimicking famous voices. The New York Times reported the deal, citing two anonymous sources, but the purchase price remains undisclosed. Weights.gg had built a small community where creators could clone the tones of Samuel L.

Jackson, Taylor Swift, Donald Trump and others, then post the results for others to use. The company raised roughly four million dollars in venture capital before announcing, on its website, a farewell to its users on April 1, 2026. Its engineers are now scattered across OpenAI’s various groups.

According to the same sources, OpenAI has no intention of launching a product that mirrors Weights.gg’s public platform. The firm previously demonstrated its own voice‑cloning tech in 2024 but kept it behind safety‑focused restrictions, opting instead to weave the capability into ChatGPT’s voice mode and a developer API. The acquisition hints at how OpenAI is consolidating talent while keeping the public rollout of celebrity‑style voice synthesis tightly controlled.

Weights.gg worked like a social network where users could create and share AI algorithms, including tools to clone the voices of celebrities like Samuel L. The startup had about six employees and had raised roughly four million dollars in venture capital. On its website, the company said goodbye to its community on April 1, 2026.

The team now works across different groups at OpenAI. OpenAI doesn't plan to release a product similar to Weights.gg, according to the sources. Back in 2024, OpenAI had already shown off its own voice cloning technology but kept it locked down over safety concerns.

Instead, OpenAI is building its voice technology into other products, for example, through the voice mode in ChatGPT or a developer API.

OpenAI bought a voice cloning startup famous for celebrity imitations - THE DECODER

Why this matters

We see OpenAI adding a voice‑cloning platform to its portfolio. The acquisition of Weights.gg, a six‑person startup that let users share algorithms for mimicking celebrities such as Samuel L. Jackson, Taylor Swift and Donald Trump, suggests a push beyond text.

Yet the purchase price remains undisclosed, and the integration path is unclear. For developers, the move could mean tighter access to pretrained voice models, but it also raises questions about how OpenAI will police misuse of celebrity likenesses. Privacy concerns linger.

Founders of niche AI tools may view the deal as a reminder that larger players can absorb specialized capabilities quickly, especially when backed by a modest $4 million funding round. Ethical questions remain. Researchers will likely watch how OpenAI balances open‑source sharing with the proprietary control implied by a “social network”‑style repository.

We remain skeptical about whether the acquisition will translate into broader, responsibly‑managed services, or simply expand OpenAI’s internal toolbox. Until we see concrete policy updates or product releases, the impact on the broader AI community stays uncertain.