I fell in love with the narration of the de audiobook The Lord of the Rings edited by Andy Serkis. The human voice has a warmth, an enveloping feeling that no machine will ever be able to give us… yet Apple intends to use artificial intelligence for the narration of audiobooks. To report it exclusively is the The Guardian, citing inside sources. Let's see the details of the news.
Apple now offers "digital narratives" for some titles in the romance and non-romance genres: audiobooks are read by artificial intelligence
The Tim Cook-owned company recently unveiled a series of fiction and romance audiobooks with “digital storytelling” on its Apple Books platform. This allows readers to browse and purchase e-books and audiobooks, as we know. The two current AI narrators are named Madison, a soprano, and Jackson, a baritone, according to the website of Apple. In the future, the company also plans to offer AI-narrated nonfiction and audiobooks of various kinds. For storytelling, Apple will launch two additional digital voices called Helena and Mitchell.
According to the The Guardian, Apple has reached out to independent publishers in recent months and asked them to participate in its digital storytelling initiative. The company said it would cover production costs and give authors royalties from sales. In return, publishers were required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Apple says it aims to empower independent authors and small publishers, who may not be able to afford or deal with the complex production process required to turn their text into audio. The company wants to make audiobook creation "more accessible to everyone."
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The company writes on its website:
Digitally narrated titles are an invaluable complement to professionally narrated audiobooks and will help bring audio to as many books and as many people as possible. Apple Books remains committed to celebrating and showcasing the magic of human storytelling and will continue to grow human-narrated audiobook catalog
But some in the publishing industry are skeptical about replacing human storytellers, often professional voice actors or the authors themselves, with artificial intelligence. They say audiobooks are an art form and human storytellers help enhance the experience.
The concern about artificial intelligence isn't limited to the publishing industry. Particularly in recent months, artificial intelligence has become increasingly looming in the art world, leading to fears that the technology will one day replace human artists altogether. Already critics are concerned that some AI-powered products are stealing from artists, as they are trained on internet-sourced images created by humans.
As Jon Porter writes for The Verge, further integration of AI into audiobooks could have potentially huge implications for the multibillion-dollar industry. It remains to be seen how many other audiobook platforms will follow Apple's lead. Amazon, for example, requires audiobooks on its Audible platform to be narrated by humans.
