There are synthetic voices has been growing for years, and the generative AI boom of the new ’20s accelerated that process. AI voices are everywhere—in podcasts, in political campaigns, and in chatbots that perhaps not-so-subtly mimic celebrity voices. Soon, they’ll all be in your audiobooks, too.
Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook company, has announced a trial program for developing AI voice clones to read works on its audiobook marketplace. The announcement came via a post on ACX—Audiobook Creation Exchange—Audible’s service that allows authors and publishers to turn written books into audiobooks.
“We’re taking measured steps to test new technologies to help expand our catalog,” the post said, “and this week we’re inviting a small group of storytellers to participate in a US -only beta that allows them to create and monetize replicas of their own voices using AI-generated speech technology.”
Audible says both narrators and authors will have control over which projects their AI voices are used in and final narrations will be reviewed as part of the ACX production process to check for mispronunciations or other errors.
However, this may seem somewhat inconsistent with Audible’s current approach to narrated audiobooks, as even after this announcement, ACX’s submission requirements still state that audiobook narrations, “must someone narrate.” But Amazon has been bullish on AI, and implemented a similar AI audio program for its Kindle direct publishing operation last year.
The Audible program is currently limited, with a select group of narrators participating. But it’s easy to see where this will go from here, and soon Audible will open up to let any author with the ability to develop an AI voice to read their own book. Other companies are also playing in this space; startup Rebind has enlisted authors to allow their voices to be cloned so that an AI version of them can “guide” readers through their texts. Fans of audiobooks are on the fence about all of this.
Personally, I can’t wait until these fuzzy but strange voices fall into the hands of dinosaur eroticists.
Here’s some other consumer tech news from this week.
Papers, please
Google is letting users digitize more than just their personal information. Next up: passports.
Google added digital driver’s licenses to its Wallet platform last year, allowing Android users to store identity details on their phones. Soon (Google isn’t saying exactly when) users will be able to do the same with their US passports.
There are some caveats, of course. A Google Wallet version of your passport will only be accepted at specific TSA checkpoints where digital IDs are allowed. (Here’s a map.) Also, Google makes sure to recommend that you still keep your passport. Digital IDs are generally not accepted anywhere outside of airports, so if you’re having trouble while abroad, you’ll want to have your physical documentation with you. But for a lucky subset of travelers, it solves the problem of needing to take one more item in your bag when going through airport security.
Keepin’ Tabs
Hey speaking of Google, the company also announced some good news for all of us dirty browser tab hoarders. Tab grouping is a feature in Google Chrome that allows you to remove all your browser tabs under group folders for easier sorting. (I’ll read them later, I swear!) Google says its grouping feature will soon be synced across platforms. That means you can seamlessly continue your desktop browsing journey on your mobile device, where you certainly won’t just continue to ignore them.
Tab grouping will also be available soon in Chrome on iOS, and should be able to sync across desktops as well. How fast will it all come? Well, again Google is not very clear about that. Regardless, better start collecting all those browser tabs now. You never know when you might need them again.
Menlo-Upon-Tyne
Meta—the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp company that also makes AI—announced that its AI services are set to colonize a new cultural realm: the Brits. Meta has announced that it will train its AI models on data from users of its platforms in the UK.
Specifically, data will be collected from anyone who uses Facebook or Instagram in the UK, and then used to train Meta’s AI accordingly. In its announcement, Meta said it hoped the move would help its AI tools more accurately reflect British culture and speech.
