Audiobooks discussion
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Robin P wrote: "Most of us who are audiobook addicts do it for the performance, as well as the convenience (listening while driving, exercising, in some jobs even while working.) If I just wanted to know the words in the book, I could read it in print, the narrator brings something extra."When listening to audio books, there are nuances that can never be recreated from AI. I come from an era of radio dramatization shows...before we acquired a television. I listen to a lot of books done by Graphic Audio because of this.
I too noticed the rapid surge of virtual voice with many of the newer books through Amazon/Audible. It is difficult to wade through their audio books without first hitting a wall of "virtual voice" narrations. I do not find an "advanced search" on the page to see if there is a way to bypass the AI wall of madness. What I have done was searched "from old to new" in order to see/hear human narrated listens....slow and tedious.
Those who narrate audio books for a living are greatly affected and having difficulties earning a living because of these changes. I'm all for change, don't get me wrong. But when it comes to eliminating someone's livelihood, that's robbery, plain and simple.
Makes me wonder with all the new releases coming out- if the authors decided to go this AI route, or if they had no idea and were robbed of the choice. What about the narrators who are working within a book series who are now finding out that their services are no longer needed because of AI. There are many questions, and time will tell (soon) how this is affecting the book world.
Arkrazormama wrote: "Has anyone tried this virtual voice thing ? I just noticed half the new releases in audible paranormal romance has this listed under narrator. I feel like the narrator is just as important as the a..."Author YouTube channels sometimes have AI generated narration. One I listened to switched POV between the two main characters. While it may not have been as good as two skilled human narrators it was better than human narrator pairs sometimes are. Very listenable. The single voice AI generated narration was not as good as a very skilled human narrator but better than some I've listened to. As far as I know none of these were expensive customized AIs, just Google AI narration.
Keep in mind I come at this from a different point of view than someone who only started listening in the last few years when professional narrators became the norm. Not only have I listened to audio books for decades, I experienced early version of Dragon Naturally Speaking when it sounded like a Battlestar Galactica Cylon. To me current AI narration is amazing.
I think if AI copies human actor voice the actor should be paid but there are more books published than professional narrators available to record them.
I know we have some discussion in one of our threads about AI reading books. Most of us are 100% against it. If you are a student who needs a textbook read, it could be fine. For people with visual impairment, most computers, tablets and phones have had the option for a while of reading text to you, including emails, phone texts, or any material on the internet.
Most of us who are audiobook addicts do it for the performance, as well as the convenience (listening while driving, exercising, in some jobs even while working.) If I just wanted to know the words in the book, I could read it in print, the narrator brings something extra.
And there's a labor issue here, this is part of the reason for the recent actor's strike. Professional narrators could be replaced by AI which costs nothing. Even worse, someone could steal the voice of a famous person (dead or alive) and make it sound like John F. Kennedy or Taylor Swift was narrating the book. Well, Taylor has the clout to fight that, but I bet there are many lesser-known performers who could be cheated that way. It's fortunate that audiobooks became as big as they are before the AI surge, so that there are many narrators and fans who can fight it.