Apple launches AI narrators for some audiobooks (Link) https://sixcolors.com/link/2023/01/apple-launches-ai-narrators-for-some-audiobooks/
>Finally, there’s the question of the impact on audiobook narrators
I don't see this being competition for #audiobook narrators. certainly not at the current AI narration quality levels. I searched for "Narrated by Apple Books" in Apple Books. A lot of #audiobooks come up and you can listen to samples on all of them. I would recommend trying. IMO while the quality of AI narration is a big step up from the previous text-to-speech, it's still **far inferior** to human narration. there is no voice acting at all, It's all very monotone. I am an avid audiobook reader but I would not listen to any audiobooks so narrated. Apple is right that is aimed and indie authors who can't afford to hire professional narrators. I don't believe anybody who wants to sell m ore than single digit numbers of audiobooks will go with the AI option.
@sixcolors
>Apple is also doing quality checks
so turnaround time is listed at a couple months.
Interesting. this makes sense but I do wonder how #Apple intends to make money on this then. Quality checks on #audiobooks are labor intensive and take time. if an #audiobook is 10 hours long then it will take at least 10 hours (more if there are problems) for someone to check it. This costs money. On the other hand vast majority of these audiobooks will sell 0 copies. and unlike the App Store which has a similar issue this will not be offset by popular books with a lot of downloads. any book that can sell in meaningful numbers will have a human narrator and not an AI one.