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2019 I did an "Ask HN: When will text-to-speech replace narrators" Most answers did not age well I would say. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20931541 ht

2019 I did an "Ask HN: When will text-to-speech replace narrators" Most answers did not age well I would say. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20931541 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20931541

phphphphp 4y ago
The answers seem to have aged quite well! Apple specifically say that this is designed as a complement to human narration and not a replacement: some aspect of that is Apple protecting relationships with the audiobook industry, but it’s also fair to say that the humanness of human narration is still unmatched by text-to-speech. For many people, high quality text-to-speech will be good enough to enjoy but it doesn’t seem likely to be an audiobook replacement today. That said, I suspect it’s less of a technology issue and more cultural: the current generation growing up on robot audio will have different expectations to previous generations, the lack of humanness probably isn’t an issue for them, so even if the technology can never exactly replicate the humanness of audiobooks, it may not matter. (The text-to-speech on TikTok, for example, is often lampooned by people not of the TikTok generation for being disconcerting and annoying, whereas young people seem to have no problem with it… and that voice is much more artificial sounding than these Apple examples).
- phphphphp 4y ago
  Also as far as predictions go, I predict that a few years from now there’ll be research and think pieces about the impact learning from artificial voices has on young children.
lern_too_spel 4y ago
If this is your standard, the answer was 2020 or maybe earlier. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271329 I don't think publishers will stop hiring professional narrators for the bestsellers (instead of the long tail that has been text-only until recently) for a few years more.

phphphphp 4y ago

The answers seem to have aged quite well! Apple specifically say that this is designed as a complement to human narration and not a replacement: some aspect of that is Apple protecting relationships with the audiobook industry, but it’s also fair to say that the humanness of human narration is still unmatched by text-to-speech. For many people, high quality text-to-speech will be good enough to enjoy but it doesn’t seem likely to be an audiobook replacement today. That said, I suspect it’s less of a technology issue and more cultural: the current generation growing up on robot audio will have different expectations to previous generations, the lack of humanness probably isn’t an issue for them, so even if the technology can never exactly replicate the humanness of audiobooks, it may not matter. (The text-to-speech on TikTok, for example, is often lampooned by people not of the TikTok generation for being disconcerting and annoying, whereas young people seem to have no problem with it… and that voice is much more artificial sounding than these Apple examples).

phphphphp 4y ago
Also as far as predictions go, I predict that a few years from now there’ll be research and think pieces about the impact learning from artificial voices has on young children.

lern_too_spel 4y ago

If this is your standard, the answer was 2020 or maybe earlier. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271329 I don't think publishers will stop hiring professional narrators for the bestsellers (instead of the long tail that has been text-only until recently) for a few years more.