Audible to Start Generating AI Voice Replicas of Select Audiobook Narrators
The audiobook service is inviting some US-based narrators to train artificial intelligence on their voices
Under the new arrangement, rather than limiting the audio work entirely to company-owned synthetic voices, Audible will be encouraging professional narrators to get in on the action.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergAmazon.com Inc.’s Audible will begin inviting a select group of US-based audiobook narrators to train artificial intelligence on their voices, the clones of which can then be used to make audiobook recordings. The effort, which kicks off this week, is designed to add more audiobooks to the service, quickly and cheaply — and to welcome traditional narrators into the evolving world of audiobook automation which, to date, many have regarded warily.
Last year, Amazon began offering US-based, self-published authors who make their books available on the Kindle Store the option of having their works narrated by a generic “virtual voice.” The initiative has been popular. As of May, more than 40,000 books in Audible were marked as having made use of the technology.