Passion Labs in Conversation with Laura Brady | Eleven Labs

Passion Labs In Conversation with Laura Brady:  Why the Future of AI Needs Creatives, Ethicists and Engineers Alike

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Now on the go-to-market team at ElevenLabs, Laura Brady didn’t take the obvious path into AI. She began in mechanical engineering, spending her early career studying the acoustics of jet engines (searching for ways to make some of the loudest machines on earth quieter).
Even then, audio was the through line.

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Today, that lifelong connection to audio converges with one of the fastest-moving frontiers in technology: AI-generated speech, sound, and music. From inside ElevenLabs, Laura has a front-row seat to how these tools are reshaping creativity and who we need at the table to shape what comes next.

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AI Is Defining the Next Ten Years

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Working at an AI-first company, Laura describes her day-to-day as constant discovery.

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"Every day someone shows you a tool you’ve never heard of, doing something you didn’t think was possible. It’s the best training in how to use these models.”

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But she’s equally clear: this isn’t just a technical revolution.

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Laura’s younger sister studies English and philosophy, and Laura sees that as an advantage not a disadvantage in an AI-driven world.

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For Laura, the next evolution of the field won’t just be about model performance. It will be about judgment, empathy, and responsibility and that requires more people with non-technical, creative, and philosophical backgrounds.

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From Dubbed Films to Global Models: The ElevenLabs Story

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ElevenLabs itself began with a deeply human frustration.

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Its two Polish founders grew up watching English films dubbed into Polish except the dubbing was famously done by one single voice actor, reading every character, male or female. “More like an audiobook,” Laura jokes, “than a film.”

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Their question was simple:
Could AI make this experience better? 

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From that spark, ElevenLabs built state-of-the-art text-to-speech and speech-to-text models. Today, the company continues to expand beyond voice alone including a new AI music generation model, built very deliberately in partnership with the music industry.

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Why IP Collaboration Matters: “AI Companies Should Be Working With Creatives”

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Laura is refreshingly direct about one of the most pressing challenges in AI: intellectual property.

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"Who owns the material that trains these models? That has to be absolutely clear.”

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Rather than sidestep the issue, ElevenLabs has chosen a collaborative approach. When building their music model, they licensed the music used for training and worked directly with rights holders, an intentional move to set a precedent. “We’re a European company. Security, compliance, IP and those things have to be watertight.”

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It’s a stance that signals where the industry must go: toward transparency, partnership, and respect for the people whose creativity powers these tools.

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About Passion Labs

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Passion Labs is an AI research and development lab building technologies and thought leadership that amplify human potential. Through our “In Conversation” series, we spotlight diverse voices shaping the future of AI, across industry, ethics, and creativity.

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