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Apple has already done it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/04/apple-artificial-intelligence-ai-audiobooks https://www.theguardian.com/technology

by mongol 3y ago

Apple has already done it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/04/apple-artificial-intelligence-ai-audiobooks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/04/apple-art...

crazygringo 3y ago
Yes, that's exactly the kind of "mechanical" version I was talking about. The article goes on to describe the challenges I was talking about: > Still, computer-generated voices have long struggled to hold the attention of listeners for long periods of time, and to overcome the ‘uncanny valley’ effect of synthetic human speech. Human intonation and inflection are notoriously difficult to predict and replicate.
- deleted 3y ago
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burkaman 3y ago
Some samples here: https://authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-audiobooks https://authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-aud.... It's good, but it would definitely get very monotonous to listen to for 10+ hours, and even in these short cherry-picked examples there are a couple kind of jarring tonal decisions. You'll also notice they avoided sampling any dialogue, presumably because these voices will read all characters in the exact same manner as the narration. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I definitely notice and get annoyed when I don't like the narrator. I think I could maybe get used to this for one book but I would avoid it if possible, and I would really hate it if every book I listened to used this exact same style. I would say this is probably already good enough for short non-fiction articles, but not there yet for fiction. It is genuinely confusing (for me at least) when an audiobook narrator reads a phrase with the "wrong" emotion, or doesn't vocally distinguish between characters.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  Exactly -- the voices all sound like they belong to somebody emotionally "lobotomized", for lack of a better term. Every sentence has the exact same rhythm patterns, and every sentence that ends with a period ends on the exact same pitch. Listening to a single sentence is fine; listening to just ten sentences is monotonous and just feels strange. It's perfectly fine for Siri responses or reading back a dictated text message. Not for listening to a whole book though.
  - TillE 3y ago
    I've listened to a lot of Books on Tape from the 80s and 90s where narrating in a mostly flat monotone was the norm, but even they would inject emotion and vary their delivery where appropriate. Good modern audiobooks are a true performance even when the narrator isn't doing a bunch of highly distinct voices. You can't replace that with AI any more than you can replace a great voice actor.

by mongol 3y ago

Apple has already done it: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/04/apple-artificial-intelligence-ai-audiobooks https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/04/apple-art...

crazygringo 3y ago

Yes, that's exactly the kind of "mechanical" version I was talking about. The article goes on to describe the challenges I was talking about: > Still, computer-generated voices have long struggled to hold the attention of listeners for long periods of time, and to overcome the ‘uncanny valley’ effect of synthetic human speech. Human intonation and inflection are notoriously difficult to predict and replicate.

deleted 3y ago
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burkaman 3y ago

Some samples here: https://authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-audiobooks https://authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-aud.... It's good, but it would definitely get very monotonous to listen to for 10+ hours, and even in these short cherry-picked examples there are a couple kind of jarring tonal decisions. You'll also notice they avoided sampling any dialogue, presumably because these voices will read all characters in the exact same manner as the narration. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I definitely notice and get annoyed when I don't like the narrator. I think I could maybe get used to this for one book but I would avoid it if possible, and I would really hate it if every book I listened to used this exact same style. I would say this is probably already good enough for short non-fiction articles, but not there yet for fiction. It is genuinely confusing (for me at least) when an audiobook narrator reads a phrase with the "wrong" emotion, or doesn't vocally distinguish between characters.

crazygringo 3y ago
Exactly -- the voices all sound like they belong to somebody emotionally "lobotomized", for lack of a better term. Every sentence has the exact same rhythm patterns, and every sentence that ends with a period ends on the exact same pitch. Listening to a single sentence is fine; listening to just ten sentences is monotonous and just feels strange. It's perfectly fine for Siri responses or reading back a dictated text message. Not for listening to a whole book though.
- TillE 3y ago
  I've listened to a lot of Books on Tape from the 80s and 90s where narrating in a mostly flat monotone was the norm, but even they would inject emotion and vary their delivery where appropriate. Good modern audiobooks are a true performance even when the narrator isn't doing a bunch of highly distinct voices. You can't replace that with AI any more than you can replace a great voice actor.