Apple Turns A New Page For Audiobooks By Enlisting AI Narrators

The next time you settle in to listen to an audiobook, you might be faced with a voice that is not tethered to an actual human but instead comes from artificial intelligence.

Apple is entering the audiobook sphere with a twist up its sleeve in the form of AI-generated narrators that will remove the need for an arsenal of voice actors.
 
According to The Guardian, audiobooks are having a surge in the market, with sales increasing by 25% last year. The market is expected to reach $33.5 billion in revenue in 2023 alone.
 
Under Apple’s dedicated website, Books for Authors, the company highlights a few rules and regulations regarding how the new system will work and how authors will receive their pay. Firstly, the tech firm notes that this new feature is meant to help promote independently published authors that don’t have the backing nor the resources to hire a team to produce an audiobook.
 
Writers will have to pay for the production, and in turn, they will receive royalties from sales.
 
As such, fiction writers will have the pleasure of having their works translated into audio files through the dulcet tones of Madison and Jackson, who the listener can choose between depending on the book’s mood.

For those more inclined to write or read non-fiction, Apple brings forward two AI-generated voices, Helena and Mitchell, to get the job done. 

Readers and listeners can tune into the Books app on iOS to find this new feature.
 
With that being said, one has to wonder how the progression of this technology will affect the voice acting community. Of course, Apple is a trendsetter in the tech sphere, and many other companies might follow suit should this venture be successful. While this could help many independent authors reach the lucrative audiobook market, it might just be to the detriment of other creators who could lose their source of income.
 
Additionally, The Guardian also points out that Canadian literary agent Carly Watters says that people want to listen to humans narrating instead of an AI’s cold and unfeeling voice.
 
 
 
[via Gizmodo and PC Mag, images via Apple]