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15 (software engineer)

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15
A cartoon pony with a pale lilac coat, light blue mane, glasses, and a dark hoodie sits behind a laptop beside a microphone.
15 at Everfree Northwest in 2025
Born1998 or 1999 (age 26–27)
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS)
OccupationsSoftware engineer, computer scientist
Notable work15.ai
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Website15.dev Edit this at Wikidata

15 is an American software engineer, computer scientist, and mathematician. He is best known for creating 15.ai, a text-to-speech website credited with popularizing AI voice cloning. The pseudonym 15 is a reference to his claim that 15 seconds of speech is sufficient to clone a voice up to human standards, which was corroborated by OpenAI in 2024.

15 graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he began developing the technology behind 15.ai as a freshman. The site launched in 2020 and went viral the following year, becoming one of the first mainstream applications of generative AI. In 2022, he exposed the NFT company Voiceverse for plagiarizing 15.ai to promote its partnership with voice actor Troy Baker.

Media outlets and AI researchers praised his work on 15.ai, highlighting 15.ai's non-commercial and indie status in a highly technical field normally dominated by corporations. Well known within the brony community, 15 is identified with his ponysona, a light blue pony original character, and has supported and founded various fandom-related projects.

Education and career

15 attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),[1][2][3] where he received degrees in physics, computer science, and mathematics. His thesis was on quantum pseudo-telepathy in nonlocal game theory.[‡ 1] In 2019, he co-founded an analytics startup that was accepted into Y Combinator, after which he moved to Silicon Valley rather than pursue a planned PhD. He later left the company, and was subsequently employed as chief technology officer at other YC companies.[‡ 1]

15.ai

A pale lilac cartoon pony with a light blue mane and tail, glasses, and a dark hoodie
15's ponysona, a light-blue pony original character, has been used as the mascot of the 15.ai website.

15 began researching speech synthesis during his first year at MIT, having been inspired by Google DeepMind's WaveNet paper. His undergraduate research focused on minimizing the amount of recorded speech needed to reproduce a voice. His pseudonym refers to his claim that 15 seconds of speech is sufficient to produce a voice clone of human-like quality; the same idea gave the project its name, 15.ai. This assertion was later corroborated by OpenAI in 2024.[4]

In March 2020, 15 released 15.ai as a free, non-commercial web application that allowed users to generate speech in the voices of fictional characters.[2] One of the first mainstream applications of generative AI[2] and the first of audio deepfake technology,[5] 15.ai became an international viral phenomenon in 2021[4] and popularized voice cloning in memes and content creation.[6][7][8][9] Reception to the project and its developer were generally positive, with many reviews particularly praising 15.ai's ease of use despite its technical sophistication[8][10] and the impressiveness of an indie project outperforming contemporary models created by large tech companies.[11][12] For his work on 15.ai, Player called 15 a "brilliant engineer",[13] and Independent described him as a "programming prodigy".[14] On Marginal Revolution, economist Tyler Cowen mentioned 15 as an "underrated talent in AI".[15]

15.ai went offline in September 2022 due to legal complications regarding copyright infringement.[4] In May 2025, 15.ai was revived under the name "15.dev".[16]

Voiceverse NFT plagiarism scandal

In January 2022, 15 accused Voiceverse, an NFT company that had announced a partnership with voice actor Troy Baker, of using audio generated by 15.ai in its promotional material without attribution. He publicized the allegation on Twitter, and Voiceverse subsequently acknowledged that its marketing team had used 15.ai without giving credit. 15 responded to the company's apology with "Go fuck yourself".[17] The exchange circulated widely online and drew a large amount of support for the developer.[4] News publications reported that Voiceverse had plagiarized from 15, and the incident was documented in multiple AI ethics databases, criticisms of predatory monetization in video games, and retrospectives as one of the earliest instances of plagiarism and theft during the AI boom.[18][19][20]

Other projects

In May 2026, 15 launched Artist Alley, a fandom online marketplace for physical and digital merchandise and art commissions.[‡ 2] He cited conversations with artists and vendors he met at fan conventions as an impetus for creating the platform.[‡ 3] That month, he also announced the indefinite closure of 15.dev[a] to focus on running Artist Alley.[‡ 4]

In August 2026, 15 released 3place, a collaborative voxel art browser game inspired by wplace.[‡ 5] The website allows users to build with colored blocks on a shared three-dimensional map of Earth.[‡ 6]

Personal life

15 is a frequent attendee of furry and brony conventions. He is identified with his ponysona, a light-blue pony original character.[‡ 1] Within the brony community, 15 is regarded as a celebrity for his work on 15.ai, a status known as being "horse famous" in the vernacular of the brony fandom.[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Since its closure, the site 15.dev now leads to 15's personal website.

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 3 Czornik, Katarzyna (December 3, 2025). "AI and GenAI as Tools in the Hands of Islamic Terrorist Organisations". Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies. 24 (72): 37.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Temitope, Yusuf (December 10, 2024). "15.ai Creator reveals journey from MIT Project to internet phenomenon". The Guardian. Lagos, Nigeria. Archived from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  5. ↑ Bolocan, Emil; Savciuc, Oxana (May 16, 2025). Evolution of Integrated Marketing Communication from Telecommunications Models to AI Frenzy (PDF). International Scientific Conference "Development Through Research and Innovation" (IDSC-2025). Chișinău, Moldova: Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova. p. 242. doi:10.53486/dri2025.30. ISBN 978-9975-168-26-7. Retrieved September 2, 2026.
  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. ↑ Morton, Lauren (January 18, 2021). "Put words in game characters' mouths with this fascinating text to speech tool". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  8. 1 2 Ruppert, Liana (January 18, 2021). "Make Portal's GLaDOS And Other Beloved Characters Say The Weirdest Things with This App". Game Informer. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  9. ↑ Zwiezen, Zack (January 18, 2021). "Website Lets You Make GLaDOS Say Whatever You Want". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  10. ↑ Villalobos, José (January 18, 2021). "Descubre 15.AI, un sitio web en el que podrás hacer que GlaDOS diga lo que quieras" [Discover 15.AI, a Website Where You Can Make GlaDOS Say What You Want]. LaPS4 (in Spanish). Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. 1 2 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.
  13. ↑ "Ezen a szájton azt adhatsz egy rakás közismert karakter szájába, amit csak akarsz" [On this site, you can put whatever you want into the mouths of a bunch of well-known characters.]. Player.hu (in Hungarian). January 17, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2026.
  14. ↑ Abisola, Shojobi (January 3, 2025). "The MIT Project That Paved Way For Modern Voice AI". Independent. Retrieved October 4, 2026.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ Eghosa, Fredrick (June 30, 2025). "I tested the 6 best 15.ai alternatives for AI voiceovers (2025 review)". Techpoint Africa. Retrieved November 20, 2025.
  17. ↑ Wright, Steve (January 17, 2022). "Troy Baker-backed NFT company admits to using content without permission". Stevivor. Archived from the original on January 17, 2022. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
  18. ↑ "Voiceverse NFT caught plagiarising voice lines from AI service 15.ai". AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Incidents and Controversies. January 2022. Archived from the original on October 4, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
  19. ↑ Sonali, Pednekar (January 14, 2022). Lam, Khoa (ed.). "Incident 277: Voices Created Using Publicly Available App Stolen and Resold as NFT without Attribution". AI Incident Database. Archived from the original on January 13, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
  20. ↑ Bailey, Jonathan (November 17, 2025). "A Retrospective on the Voiceverse Plagiarism Scandal". Plagiarism Today. Archived from the original on November 17, 2025. Retrieved November 20, 2025.

Primary sources

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