ElevenLabs AI voice revives Salvador Dalí with a surreal twist

Salvador Dalí passed away in 1989 but more than three decades after his death you can call him up and chat about life, the universe and — elephant dreams.

This week, The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, launched "Dial Dalí," an AI-powered experience allowing anyone in the U.S. to dial 772-ASK-DALI and engage in a real-time conversation with the artist's recreated voice. Calls are managed via Twilio.

The project, developed in collaboration with creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), uses ElevenLabs' advanced voice technology to replicate Dalí’s distinctive voice.

Unlike deepfakes or static voice recordings, this AI experience enables a dynamic back-and-forth conversation, allowing callers to ask Dalí all those burning existential questions and receive responses generated by AI, spoken in a voice that sounds remarkably like the artist himself.

Ask about art. Time. Dreams. Lobsters. His favorite foods. Or simply say happy birthday. Our AI-Dalí was trained on all his writings and speech. He’ll talk to you in the way only Dalí can. 

The Dali voice is only available via the Dali Museum exhibits but you can experience other iconic voices in the ElevenReader app including Maya Angelou, Burt Reynolds,Laurence Olivier, Jerry Garcia and Judy Garland.

How Dial Dali was created

The GS&P team created the voice model by utilizing archival recordings and interviews with Dalí, and feeding them into ElevenLabs proprietary voice cloning technology. Anyone is able to do this using our Instant or Professional Voice cloning tools, although provenance of voices are checked, so you need to have the rights to use that voice.

Leveraging the ElevenLabs multilingual and accent-preserving capabilities, GS&P was able to meticulously replicate Dalí’s distinctive tone, rhythm, and his occasional fluid transition between Spanish and English, capturing the artist's unique speech patterns with remarkable accuracy.

This latest experience builds on an earlier installation at The Dalí Museum, also powered by ElevenLabs, called Ask Dalí. In that exhibit, museum visitors could pick up a replica of Dalí’s famous lobster phone and engage in a one-on-one voice chat with the artist. That exhibit alone generated more than 75,000 AI-powered conversations—each unique, unscripted, and delivered in real-time.

ElevenLabs' technology plays a central role in these projects. Designed for both creative and accessibility use cases, the company’s voice AI platform enables instant voice generation with emotional range, high fidelity, and natural cadence. In the Dial Dalí experience, the AI is integrated with GPT-4 to allow the voice not only to speak but to engage in intelligent, human-like dialogue in Dalí’s persona.

The lobster phone

"Dalí’s lobster phone shows that the telephone has always been a surrealist object. Now, we’ve made it literal," said Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of GS&P. Dalí’s eccentricity is core to the experience. Callers might ask him for life advice, thoughts on contemporary art, or even what he thinks about AI. The responses, generated in real time, are a blend of surrealism, insight, and wit… All the characteristics Dalí was known for in life.

The project launched to coincide with what would have been Dalí’s 120th birthday on May 11, 2024, and aims to continue engaging audiences throughout the summer. The number is accessible from anywhere in the U.S., offering a piece of the museum’s in-person experience to a national audience.

For ElevenLabs, the project reflects a broader mission: Using AI to preserve and extend human voices—whether for entertainment, education, accessibility, or cultural heritage. In this case, it’s about giving new life to an iconic voice from the past, letting it interact with the present.

Why it works

By fusing natural-sounding voice synthesis with generative AI, the Dial Dalí project brings something unique to the conversation around AI and art. It’s not simply about what AI can create—but about what it can help us remember, reimagine, and rediscover.

Salvador Dalí once said, “What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.” In giving him a voice again, ElevenLabs might be doing exactly that—in the most delightfully Surrealist way possible

“Dalí’s lobster phone shows that the telephone has always been a surrealist object. Now, we’ve made it literal. With Dial Dalí, anyone can connect to a voice from the past that still has something to say about the future,” said Jeff Goodby, Co-Founder, GS&P.

“Dalí imagined new realities — and we’re proud to honor his birthday by inviting the world to speak directly with that imagination. This experience captures his spirit, his humor, and his timeless curiosity,” said Hank Hine, Executive Director, The Dalí Museum.