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Dabkowski: Voice is the only AI modality that evokes real emotion

Piotr Dabkowski · From $0 to $11B: The ElevenLabs Story · Feb 6, 2026 · at 9:46

Piotr Dabkowski, co-founder of ElevenLabs, contrasts the emotional impact of voice AI with text-based AI models.

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“Voice is the only AI modality that can actually make you feel something. And so when you have text, yes, you can have a poem or a story but it doesn't give you that same kind of emotive feel.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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