Audible is getting into AI

Audible is dipping its toes into the world of AI, with a new program that promises to allow creators to create audiobooks using a replica of their own voice.

As put by Amazon, there are plenty of books out there that aren’t yet available as audiobooks.

According to Amazon, the idea behind the initiative is to make it easier for more people to produce more audiobooks faster without compromising on quality. 

In a bid to head off the inevitable avalanche of criticism that comes with anything adjacent to AI, the company has said that it’s proactively looking to balance the interest of authors, narrators, publishers, and listeners in a number of practical ways.

For instance, Amazon has committed to giving narrators full control over the projects they want to audition for and power to edit pronunciation and pacing of the work that their AI-powered counterpart produces.

“This beta offering will empower participants to expand their production capabilities for high-quality audiobooks, generate new business by taking on more projects simultaneously and increase their earning potential,” Amazon said.

On paper, that sounds somewhat equitable. That said, given how the rise of AI writing tools has led to an explosion of AI-generated ebooks for Amazon’s Kindle it’s hard to be too optimistic.

Speaking to Reviews.org, author Travis Baldree was quick to express concerns about how bad actors might look to abuse the technology.

Then, Baldree predicted, "it will be incumbent on the original narrators to somehow become aware of this, and slap them down one by one"

"Amazon/Audible will of course pretend to be horrified by the occurrence, and address these issues on a case by case basis, but that will be challenging to do effectively," he added.

Baldree also doesn't have high expectations for the quality of the product that these voice prints will produce, pointing to the "objectively awful" Virtual Voice audiobooks already available on Audible. His outlook on the creative toolset that Amazon is promising to offer isn't much more positive.

"Given the time it would take to LISTEN to the entire performance, tweaking things as I go... I might as well have just recorded it, right? In fact it would probably be more efficient."

Even then though, Baldree questioned why creators like himself would want to exchange a creative job for a menial one.

"Especially since it is guaranteed to have a lower royalty than what I'd get if I'd just recorded it myself? It makes no sense," he said.

Baldree added that if a narrator wanted to use AI voice, that's currently already something they can already do.

"I'm not sure this provides anything new, except for a way to Amazon/Audible to monetize it for their own gain under the flimsy pretense of providing narrator control," he said.

Pointing to the tens of thousands of Virtual Voice books that have already flooded onto Audible since the tech was introduced last year, Baldree predicted that the specific way that Amazon opts to articulate who the narrator 'is' across the platform will determine how messy the introduction of AI audiobooks gets.

No word yet on when or if Audible’s AI audiobook program will make its way to Australian shores. However, the company has said it plans to start sending out invites from this week and will bring rights holders into the fold later this year.