Until now, the automatic reading of a text was a rather painful experience. Still far from natural phrasing, the synthetic voices clung to bad syllables and failed to offer a pleasant rhythm to listen to.
But progress has been made thanks to artificial intelligence, and Apple has jumped on the bandwagon. As of this Thursday, its Books application already offers the first audiobooks read by an AI.
At the moment, the choice is very limited: it is only about the English language, in two versions (Madison and Jackson). The works in question are also quite limited at the moment, it is mainly romance novels, read by artificial voices, that are available. If the result isn’t unpleasant to listen to, it still doesn’t measure up to a human voice. However, everything should get better with time.
Voiceover vs. AI
At Hollow, the idea is actually to offer small publishers and independent authors to turn their writing into audiobooks at low cost.
Pour le moment, Apple limite aussi largement les types de livres qui pourront être transformés de la sorte: seuls les romans d’amour are currently concerned, “les thrillers la science-fiction et la fantasy ne are currently pas pris en charge”, specify the place. An amazing arbitration that may be explained by the rhythm of the selected voices. Apple notes that two other voices, with a more neutral tone, will be available soon, especially for personal development books.
Apple’s initiative was to be announced last November, but the controversy surrounding Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was giving the tech world bad press, The Guardian reveals. The British newspaper has also questioned several publishers about the convenience of artificial voices: if some see it as an economic opportunity, others remember that a talented voiceover is precisely the interest of investing in an audiobook.
Source: BFM TV
