Jimmy Stewart's Estate Approves AI-Voiced Bedtime Story for Calm App

The estate of James "Jimmy" Stewart, the beloved actor and star of It's A Wonderful Life, has signed off on a deal that will allow Stewart's voice to be recreated using artificial intelligence tools. Stewart will "narrate" an upcoming bedtime story on the Calm app for subscribers of Calm Premium, which costs $69.99 per year. According to Variety, who first reported the deal, the story will be a "a heartwarming new holiday tale," which debuts today. Stewart died in 1997, and his final credited role -- also as a voice actor -- was as Wylie in 1991's An American Tail: Feivel Goes West. The new story for Calm will be titled "It's a Wonderful Sleep Story."

The move comes as companies are trying to find ways to use generative AI tools for profit. Actors and other creatives have been increasingly concerned that AI will be used to do certain jobs in entertainment, taking jobs away from working artists.

"We are excited for our dad to be the voice of Calm's latest Sleep Story," Kelly Stewart Harcourt, one of Stewart's daughters, said in a statement. "It's amazing what technology can do and wonderful to see Dad's legacy live on this holiday season in new ways, like helping people find restful sleep and sweet dreams."

Stewart's impassioned speeches in movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington made his voice instantly familiar to generations of moviegoers. It has also long been one of the most imitated voices in film history. In fact, the Variety article notes that the Calm story isn't just a voice generated by AI after being trained on Stewart's voice: they also had an impersonator directly involved with helping the process along. Respeecher, the same company that helped mimic Mark Hamill's voice on The Mandalorian and James Earl Jones on Obi-Wan Kenobi, was charged with doing it as convincingly as possible.

"It was essential, like in all other projects, that the project was done according to high ethical standards and respect, which Respeecher has advocated for many years," said Alex Serdiuk, Respeecher CEO and co-founder. "James Stewart is one of the most remarkable actors in U.S. history. Recreating his voice with AI was both a huge responsibility and an honor for Respeecher. It was a way to pay tribute to his incredible career and all the good memories he left to people."  

There is not a long history of precedent for AI-related cases, but one famous court case recently ruled that art generated by AI has no true "author," and cannot be copyrighted. In the case of Respeecher's Stewart voice, the fact that there is a human actor who, per Variety, "performed the lines and mimicked [Stewart's] speech style" could help make the argument that this is a different scenario.

Calm's library is full of stories read by big-name artists ranging from Matthew McConaughey and LeBron James to Mandy Moore and Kate Winslet. Key art for the story, seen above, does not cite the actor who provided the backing performance for the AI, and does not acknowledge that it was generated with AI, but simply credits the story as "read by James Stewart."