TechAIApple’s AI audiobooks are no match for AudibleApple’s automated audiobook narration is useful for accessibility, but real people do it betterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechAIApple’s AI audiobooks are no match for AudibleApple’s automated audiobook narration is useful for accessibility, but real people do it betterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Apple’s automated audiobook narration is useful for accessibility, but real people do it better
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Apple)
(Image credit: Apple)
Applehas announced a new Apple Books feature,AI-powered digital narration. It enables anyone publishing to Apple Books to create an audiobook from their manuscript through the power of AI. It’s a lot cheaper than hiring a professional narrator, and Apple has created specific voices for specific genres – so for example there’s Madison and Jackson for fiction and romance. Apparently Apple will cover the costs of turning books into audiobooks and the process will take a couple of weeks per title.
As an author and audiobook fan you’d think I’d be excited about this. But while I think it’s great from an accessibility point of view – many books never become audiobooks, and that means people with vision issues may not ever get to enjoy them – it’s part of a wider move to AI-generated content that I’m really not comfortable with.
If you’re an author or publisher youcoulduse AI narration. Butshouldyou?
Narration isn’t the same as reading
Not all narration is that good. I’ve quit plenty of audiobooks because the narrator wasn’t a good fit for the subject, or because their narration sucked the life from the story. And that’s one of my worries here.
Leaving aside the issue of jobs – narrators find it hard enough to get work already – I’m not sure the user experience is going to be great. The voices sound okay, but they’re audibly robotic – and while I’m sure AI will get things right most of the time, it won’t get it right all of the time so there will be mistakes that lift you out of the story. The uncanny valley – where computer images are close to, but not quite, human – applies to audio too.
To take the Bono example, if you turned up to a U2 concert and there was someone else singing it wouldn’t be the same – it might be the same notes, and the same melody, and the same music, but there would be something missing. I think it’s the same with audiobooks. Given the choice of hearing the author or an actor or hearing an AI, I’d want the human every time.
Sign up to the T3 newsletter for smarter living straight to your inbox
Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts
If you ever needed proof that cassette players are back, this is itWe Are Rewind has made a portable tape deck so retro it should appear from nowhere in a DeLorean
We Are Rewind has made a portable tape deck so retro it should appear from nowhere in a DeLorean
PS5 could finally be getting Gears of War and Halo after game-changing decisionThe age of exclusives is coming to an end
The age of exclusives is coming to an end
