a robot voice will now read your Apple Books
A series of audiobooks has been launched on Apple Books that are no longer narrated by a human, but by a robot voice (AI). A Dutch narrator is not (yet) available.
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Apple Books voiced by AI
The latest line of Apple Audiobooks is no longer narrated by a narrator. At least not directly: someone once spoke the words, but an AI (artificial intelligence) has turned it into a running story.
Where previously the stories were spoken by a person, it is now possible with an AI to have stories told entirely by a robot.
With this move, it is possible for Apple to expand the range of audiobooks faster and easier in Apple Books. Of course, it saves a lot of time if an AI makes an audiobook, instead of having the book spoken by a narrator. The AI is a cheaper and faster alternative for making audiobooks.
Meet Madison, Jackson, Helena and Mitchell
Apple has so far introduced four different robot voices that can speak the text in a natural way, just like Siri. The robot voices differ per genre, for example, Madison and Jackson voice the genres of fiction and romance. Helena and Mitchell narrate non-fiction and personal development books. Other genres such as thrillers will follow.
Also read: ‘Apple rejects audiobooks app from Spotify in the App Store’
Are you curious how the voices sound? Apple has shared a number of (free) fragments on the site so that you can listen to the robot voices. It is still quite easy to hear from the voices that it is a robot voice, but the voice already sounds more natural than Siri.
Apple encourages writers to create audiobooks
Apple is now calling on independent writers and major publishers to make books available for transfer to audiobooks. It will remain possible for the writers and publishers to have the book recorded by a person later and put it in Apple Books.
Having the voice recorded by an AI mainly increases the chances of small independent writers. They often do not have the budget to have the book spoken by a narrator. With AI, this problem has been solved and they can broaden their target group.
Apple does provide a notification in Apple Books
Do you doubt whether a book is narrated by an AI or by a human? For each book, Apple indicates which narrator has narrated the book or whether the book has been narrated by an AI. There is currently no Dutch robot voice available in Apple Books, but it is expected that this will not be long in coming.
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