15 (programmer)

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15
15chill.png
15's ponysona
Born1997or1998(age 26–27)
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS)
Occupation(s) Artificial intelligence researcher, programmer
Years active2020–present
Known forPopularizing AI voice cloning
Notable work 15.ai and 15.dev

15 is an artificial intelligence researcher and programmer best known for creating the text-to-speech web application 15.ai. In the early 2020s, they gained international media coverage for developing accessible audio deepfake technology and popularizing AI voice cloning in memes and content creation. The pseudonym 15 refers to their statement that 15 seconds of speech is enough to sufficiently clone a voice up to human standards.

Contents

Education and career

As a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 15 began developing deep learning speech synthesis technology in 2016 as part of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, where they demonstrated the ability to replicate advanced speech synthesis results with minimal training data. [1] [2] After graduating from MIT, 15 planned to pursue a PhD but opted to work in the tech industry instead after their startup was accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator in 2019. [3] 15 returned to research in early 2020, and using the high-quality My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic voice dataset from the Pony Preservation Project (a collaborative project on /mlp/), began developing their research as a web application. [4] In March 2020, they launched 15.ai, [5] which received widespread international attention in 2021. [6] [7] [8] [9] The pseudonym 15 is a reference to their statement that a voice can be convincingly cloned with as little as 15 seconds of data. [2] [3] [5]

15.ai is funded by 15's previous startup earnings. At its peak, 15.ai incurred operational costs of US$ 12,000 per month. [5] [3] While they accept donations via Patreon, [9] 15 later wrote that opening a Patreon account (at the urging of users who wished to contribute financially) was "a huge mistake" because it led to some believing that the project was a rug pull. [10] According to 15, they "never wanted to make money off [15.ai]" and did not want a Patreon account to begin with. [11] Despite receiving multiple acquisition offers, the website has remained independent and free of charge to use. [4] [5] [3]

In May 2025, 15 launched 15.dev as a successor to 15.ai. [12]

Voiceverse NFT controversy

On December 13, 2021, 15 announced that they had "no interest in incorporating NFTs into any aspect of [their] work." [13] [14] In January 2022, 15 discovered through log files that Voiceverse had used voice lines generated from 15.ai to create and sell an NFT without permission or attribution. [13] [15] [16] 15 publicly confronted Voiceverse on Twitter, ultimately responding with "Go fuck yourself" after Voiceverse confessed to the theft. [17] [13] [18] [19] 15's response went viral and amassed hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes in support. [3]

Recognition and influence

Google DeepMind senior research scientist Alex Irpan wrote that when 15.ai launched in 2020, it was "arguably the highest quality voice generation model in the world" and superior to models developed by Google AI. [4] Economist Tyler Cowen cited 15 as an example of underrated talent in AI and machine learning in 2022. [20] In 2023, Cliff Weitzman (founder and CEO of Speechify) credited 15.ai with "making AI voice cloning popular for content creation by being the first [...] to feature popular existing characters from fandoms", [21] and in 2024, Mati Staniszewski (co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs) acknowledged that 15.ai "transformed how users created different voices with AI". [22]

Personal life

15 is an active member of the brony fandom and has been described as "horse famous" (i.e. a celebrity within the brony community). [4] In January 2022, 15 donated $3,500 to TrotCon. [23] [24] In April 2025, 15 helped fund Pinkaboo's Neighhem, a brony music concert that was held immediately after BABSCon. [4] [25]

References

  1. ↑ Kurosawa, Yuki (2021). "ゲームキャラ音声読み上げソフト「15.ai」公開中。『Undertale』や『Portal』のキャラに好きなセリフを言ってもらえる" [Game Character Voice Reading Software "15.ai" Now Available. Get Characters from Undertale and Portal to Say Your Desired Lines]. AUTOMATON (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  2. 1 2 Chandraseta, Rionaldi (January 21, 2021). "Generate Your Favourite Characters' Voice Lines using Machine Learning". Towards Data Science. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Temitope, Yusuf (December 10, 2024). "15.ai Creator reveals journey from MIT Project to internet phenomenon". The Guardian . Archived from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Irpan, Alex (July 21, 2025). "Brony Musicians Seize The Means of Production: My Eyewitness Account to BABSCon 2025". Alex Irpan. Archived from the original on July 30, 2025. Retrieved October 1, 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Abisola, Shojobi (January 3, 2025). "The MIT Project That Paved Way For Modern Voice AI". Independent . Archived from the original on February 27, 2025. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
  6. ↑ Clayton, Natalie (January 19, 2021). "Make the cast of TF2 recite old memes with this AI text-to-speech tool". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  7. ↑ Furushima, Takayuki (January 18, 2021). "『Portal』のGLaDOSや『UNDERTALE』のサンズがテキストを読み上げてくれる。文章に込められた感情まで再現することを目指すサービス「15.ai」が話題に" [Portal's GLaDOS and UNDERTALE's Sans Will Read Text for You. "15.ai" Service Aims to Reproduce Even the Emotions in Text, Becomes Topic of Discussion]. Den Fami Nico Gamer (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  8. ↑ 遊戲, 遊戲角落 (January 20, 2021). "這個AI語音可以模仿《傳送門》GLaDOS講出任何對白！連《Undertale》都可以學" [This AI Voice Can Imitate Portal's GLaDOS Saying Any Dialog! It Can Even Learn Undertale]. United Daily News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Archived from the original on December 19, 2024. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  9. 1 2 Lamorlette, Robin (January 25, 2021). "Insolite : un site permet de faire dire ce que vous souhaitez à GlaDOS (et à d'autres personnages de jeux vidéo)" [Unusual: A site lets you make GlaDOS (and other video game characters) say whatever you want]. Clubic (in French). Archived from the original on January 19, 2025. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
  10. ↑ @fifteenai (December 7, 2024). "Making a Patreon because people told me to was a huge mistake, honestly. It saddens me to see so many people think my project was a scam because I didn't notify people even though I never wanted to make money to begin with" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. ↑ @fifteenai (December 7, 2024). "I never had a Patreon because I wanted it — people felt like that they had some obligation to donate money (even though I wrote that I wanted no handouts) so I asked someone else to make the account for me. I never wanted to make money off this project" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ↑ Scotellaro, Shaun (May 19, 2025). "15.ai Returns With Pony Voice Creation as the Focus". Equestria Daily . Retrieved May 19, 2025.
  13. 1 2 3 Innes, Ruby (January 18, 2022). "Voiceverse Is The Latest NFT Company Caught Using Someone Else's Content". Kotaku Australia . Archived from the original on July 26, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  14. ↑ Piletsky, Boris (January 15, 2022). "Создателей NFT-голосов, которых поддержал Трой Бейкер, уличили в краже голосов в тот же день" [NFT vote creators backed by Troy Baker were caught stealing votes on the same day]. iXBT Games . Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Troy Bakerin tukema NFT-yhtiö kärähti – Kaupitteli ääninäyttelyä luvatta" [Troy Baker-backed NFT company sued – peddling voice acting without permission]. Muropaketti (in Finnish). January 17, 2022. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
  16. ↑ Groth-Anderson, Magnus (January 19, 2022). "Troy Baker-støttet NFT-virksomhed indrømmer at have stjålet indhold" [Troy Baker-backed NFT company admits to stealing content]. Gamereactor (in Danish). Archived from the original on March 1, 2025. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
  17. ↑ Phillips, Tom (January 17, 2022). "Troy Baker-backed NFT firm admits using voice lines taken from another service without permission". Eurogamer . Archived from the original on January 17, 2022. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  18. ↑ Ifram, Lauda (January 18, 2022). "Proyek NFT Troy Baker Ketahuan Mencuri Aset Suara AI Tanpa Seizin Pemiliknya" [Troy Baker's NFT Project Caught Stealing AI Voice Assets Without Their Owners' Permission]. Gamebrott (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  19. ↑ Williams, Demi (January 18, 2022). "Voiceverse NFT admits to taking voice lines from non-commercial service". NME . Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  20. ↑ Cowen, Tyler (May 12, 2022). "The most underrated talent in AI?". Marginal Revolution . Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
  21. ↑ Weitzman, Cliff (November 19, 2023). "15.ai: All about 15.ai and the best alternative". Speechify . Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  22. ↑ Staniszewski, Mati (February 7, 2024). "15.AI: Everything You Need to Know & Best Alternatives". ElevenLabs (Official website). Archived from the original on December 25, 2024. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  23. ↑ TrotCon 2022 Conbook. 2022.
  24. ↑ @fifteenai (January 30, 2022). "Glad I could help :) I'll toss in some more if someone matches my donation" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  25. ↑ @fifteenai (March 29, 2025). "I'll pay at least like $5,000 to help secure a new location for the concert if it's still happening (seriously), I was looking really forward to it 😔" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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