Audiobooks discussion
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AI for audio books
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Melanie
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Nov 24, 2021 06:19AM
There is much discussion currently in the audio world about Google, production houses, publishers etc planning to use AI rather than narrators for audio books. What are your views on this?
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It wouldn't work, people want to hear people. Even if AI contained emotions artificially.
The appeal of AI is that it's perceived as cheap. But what IS cheap will SOUND cheap, and listeners will notice.Even the advantage of being low cost will go out the window the moment you want to use an AI that can come even close to the true emotional inflection of a skilled voice actor.
Remember when movies were talking about using CGI to put deceased actors into new productions? This idea will die out the same way, and for the same reason - nothing beats the real thing.
Despite being an indie author on a budget, I was able to hire an exceptional voice actor for both of my audiobooks at a very competitive rate. You won't see me on the AI bandwagon any time soon.
Sounds awful to me! AI might be ok for recording a textbook for students with vision issues, but most computers already can do this, have a voice read you text. I have seen a couple of people say they like a narrator who doesn't add emotion or inflections, they want it "straight" but that's not what I want. I'm sure a big part of the current boom in audiobooks is the wonderful talented narrators. There is no shortage of actors and others who want to do it. And with libraries and audiobook sales, lots of audio is already free or cheap.
I agree with Robin - this might work for textbooks, but not for anything else. Think about the Great Courses - the narrator/professor is key to how enjoyable the material is.And I shudder at the thought of AI in fiction!
How is this any different from existing Text-to-Speech?
I already use AI to read books to me... Alexa. When there is no audio available or the release date for the audiobook is many months after the print rlease, I've bought the Kindle book and had Alexa read it to me. It's not bad, but it is very far from the experience of listening to the book with a good narrator... not to mention what a great narrator can do.If a publishing house produces the AI narration it might eliminate the current problem with Alexa or other standard text to speech apps--strange or incorrect pronunciations and difficulty differentiating character voices when a string of back and forth dialogue has no attributions--but it only makes an adequate method slightly better... not worth losing great narrators over.
This feels akin to the people who package the free Libravox books on Audible and charge people as if the narrators were professionals. Aside from the unfairness of failing to pay narrators for the work, these narrators don't pretend to be professionals and the quality can show that.
The real question is whether or not actual publishing houses will remain relevant long enough to shape trends in what books are available. Self-publishing and ACX are making more and more inroads into the publishing world so more of us might look for authors with good human narrators who self-publish rather than an artificial narrations provided by old-fashioned publishing houses. Besides, individuals already have access to that technology and future improvements will render even publisher's versions irrelevant... leaving humans the only narrations worth paying for.
John wrote: "How is this any different from existing Text-to-Speech?"The quality of sound, inflections, interpretations, character etc of text which a human gives. From what I've heard so far, AI sounds "robotic" and annoying to say the least!
When Alexa reads a Kindle book she does a surprisingly good job... but some words aren't pronounced as they should be and inflections and emphasis aren't always on target. But it is an unexpectedly good job... like any good reader with a pleasant voice who can follow punctuation. Not bad, as I said, but not as good as talented human narrators. I suppose it depends on whether you find Alexa's voice pleasant to begin with.
Thank you everyone for your helpful comments. It seems most of you prefer the "human" narrator! :)
I think that would turn me off buying anymore audiobooks. And that would be a sad thing!This has already started. Found an author that is using AI: https://susanhayes.ca/accessible-audio/
Lynn wrote: "I think that would turn me off buying anymore audiobooks. And that would be a sad thing!This has already started. Found an author that is using AI: https://susanhayes.ca/accessible-audio/"
Yes Lynn, it has started and sometimes without the narrator or voice over's permission. Add this practice to the rights holder scams - https://www.audiobookscout.com/flagge... and other sites such as You Tube reporting this problem, it doesn't fill one with confidence as to the future of the audio book industry for those of us who work in it......
Melanie wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I think that would turn me off buying anymore audiobooks. And that would be a sad thing!This has already started. Found an author that is using AI: https://susanhayes.ca/accessible-au..."
Hi Melanie: I'm sure for some, it means more for their pockets. Pretty soon we'll all be obsolete or like The Stepford Wives.
Though human narrators are generally preferred I'll take AI or text-to-speech over human narrators I have difficulty hearing or understanding.
Here is a recent Wired article about the use of synthetic voices to narrate audiobookshttps://www.wired.com/story/audiobook...
Faith wrote: "Here is a recent Wired article about the use of synthetic voices to narrate audiobookshttps://www.wired.com/story/audiobook..."
An interesting but very disturbing article!
