Why Audible Is Silencing Humans—and Giving AI a Listen
- Amazon-Owned Audible announced AI narration technology to convert books into audiobooks using over 100 synthetic voices in multiple languages.
- Audible developed this technology due to low audio availability, with only 2% to 5% of books having audiobooks, aiming to close that gap.
- The AI system offers end-to-end production or self-service options, supports English, Spanish, French, and Italian, and plans beta AI translation in 2025.
- CEO Bob Carrigan said, “Every book deserves to be heard in audio” and sees AI as a chance to expand storytelling across languages and audiences.
- Despite AI’s growth, voice actors express concern about artistic quality and job security, emphasizing that human narration captures nuances AI cannot replicate.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Even Audiobooks Aren't Safe From AI Slop
Audible, one of the world's largest audiobook platforms, is opening the floodgates to AI slop. On Tuesday, the Amazon-owned service announced its new "integrated AI narration technology" that'll allow selected publishers to rapidly churn out audiobooks using a wide range of AI-generated voices. It's Audible's biggest foray into AI yet, and will be a major blow for voice actors, who are fighting tooth and nail to win protections against the tech…
Amazon Audible Is Going To Use AI Voices to Narrate Audiobooks
What’s the end goal in an audiobook’s narration, anyway? Is it the simple transfer of information, plot device, and spoken words, like copying bytes in a file from one folder to another? Or is it about nuance and emotion? Put me in the category of the latter. And so I had mixed feelings when I read that Amazon is launching AI narration for audiobooks on its audiobook and podcast platform, Audible. Publishers will be able to choose from more than…
Audible opens the door wide to AI audiobooks
Audible will offer AI production technology to select publishers, first for narration and later for translated narration. This premium article is available to paid subscribers of Jane's newsletter. Here's what subscribers get: Access to more than 3,000 premium articles on this site, all searchable Industry news that includes Jane’s reporting and analysis, sent via email once a wek Access to Jane’s private resource guides, continually updated L…
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