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Eligible people in Karnataka who have lost the ability to speak may receive free lifetime access to an AI-generated version of their own voice through a reported partnership between ElevenLabs and the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS). The agreement was signed in Bengaluru on 6 October 2026, but finalized eligibility rules, a way to apply and a launch date have not been reported.
What the Karnataka–ElevenLabs agreement includes
Moneycontrol reported that ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski and Karnataka IT/BT minister Priyank Kharge formalized a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with KITS at ElevenLabs’ first India Summit in Bengaluru on 6 October 2026. The report described it as the company’s first such partnership with an Indian state government. Moneycontrol’s report is the source for the agreement details below.
The MoU describes two related but distinct areas of work: access to synthetic voice technology for people who have lost speech, and exploration of voice-AI applications in government services. The potential government applications are not confirmed live services.
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How the voice-restoration programme is described
Under the arrangement as reported, eligible citizens identified by the state or organizations working under its guidance will receive free lifetime licences through ElevenLabs’ One Million Voices programme, which began in 2024. The intended users include people who have lost speech after oral or throat cancer, ALS, or other neurological or degenerative conditions.
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The technology is intended to let a person communicate using a synthetic version of their own voice, including Kannada. It generates voice output; it does not restore biological speech or treat the underlying condition.
Eligibility and how to access it
The report does not provide finalized eligibility criteria, an application form or referral process, or a programme launch date. KITS is engaging Mysuru’s All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) to explore implementation and identify eligible beneficiaries. That does not establish that AIISH is already accepting applications or that it has a confirmed delivery role.
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The report also names five organizations supporting the programme in India: ALS Care and Support Foundation, Organization for Rare Diseases India, Yes We Can, Nipman Foundation and The Quantum Hub. It does not detail their specific responsibilities in Karnataka. People interested in access should look for an implementation announcement from KITS or the state rather than assume a public application route is open.
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The MoU also covers possible uses of voice AI in citizen helplines, grievance redressal, access to government information and entitlements, and voice-based interfaces in Kannada and other languages used in Karnataka. These are areas for exploration, not evidence that a new helpline or other public service has launched.
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Karnataka’s IT/BT Department had previously described discussions with ElevenLabs about multilingual speech and conversational AI for public-service delivery, accessibility and governance bottlenecks. A later department post outlined potential pilot areas—including citizen services, healthcare, culture, investor information, interview practice in Indian languages and voice restoration—and described work toward a roadmap and an initial pilot with measurable public impact. Those posts document exploration, not completed pilots. The department’s account of the earlier discussion and its later exploration update provide that context.
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Moneycontrol reported that ElevenLabs supported 14 Indian languages at the time of the announcement and planned to extend support to all 22 official languages in the coming months. That is a company/platform statement about its language plans; it does not confirm that Karnataka’s programme or any future government service will support all 22 languages, every Kannada dialect or a particular language at launch.
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Safeguards are planned, not finalized
The parties intend to work toward a platform-agnostic safety framework for voice AI as part of Karnataka’s Responsible AI framework. Areas identified for examination include consent for voice cloning, audio provenance and watermarking, deepfake detection, restrictions on cloning public figures, and protection from voice fraud and impersonation. The reported MoU does not set out a completed framework or explain how these safeguards will be enforced.
What the announcement does—and does not—establish
The clearest near-term commitment described in the report is the plan for free lifetime licences for eligible people with speech loss, subject to identification by the state or organizations operating under its guidance. The practical details that would tell an individual how to participate remain unreported: finalized criteria, referral or application steps, rollout timing and geography, supported devices and languages at launch, and the delivery roles of AIISH or the named organizations.
ElevenLabs describes government voice and chat agents, transcription, public-information audio, human escalation and deployment options on its government product page. Those are vendor descriptions; company-reported results from other deployments do not show outcomes in Karnataka. A separate ElevenLabs announcement about a Greece government MoU likewise describes exploratory work and does not determine how Karnataka’s agreement will be implemented.
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