Madison describes a man looking at a woman. Madison’s low, textured voice rises and dips as she describes the woman’s appearance and the man’s feelings. She pauses ever so slightly to let some suspense build, then launches into the climax.
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Madison is not a human, but a “digital narrator” that Apple Books created specifically for the fiction and romance genres. Some other digital narrators on the list include the casual and friendly “Jackson,” the grave and drawling “Helena,” and the dry but professorial “Mitchell.”
On its website, Apple Books pitches its digital narrators as a way to help indie authors and writers published by smaller presses release audiobooks without facing entry barriers such as technical confusion and high costs.
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However, as the news spread through the voice-acting community, it provoked negative reactions from many, even as Apple Books assured readers that it would “continue to grow the human-narrated audiobook catalogue.”
While this may sound like a U.S. or Eurocentric issue, digital or AI-narrated books may not be far from Indians’ laptops and smartphones.
HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan said that they were currently “sampling” AI narrators for audiobooks but had not yet found a sound they liked. He believes that AI could help produce more audiobooks and save more time.
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“I can tell you, you won’t know the difference,” Mr. Padmanabhan said, “That’s where it’s getting to. Unless I tell you ‘this is AI-narrated,’ (or) ‘this is human-narrated’ while we are listening to it, I don’t think you’ll catch it. In non-fiction and other places, I don’t think it’ll matter. I think it’ll matter in fiction where the narrative brings pause, where the narrator brings a lot more.”
He added that AI-narrators would also enable faster releases for translated books.
What do authors think?
Readers and authors are concerned about the societal consequences of the mainstreaming of AI-narrated books. While voice actors losing out on employment opportunities is one obvious issue at hand, these professionals also fear that audiobooks previously narrated by them may be used without their consent to train the AI tools which could replace them.
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Keeping this in mind, would Indian readers and authors choose to support AI-narrated books?
Indian science fiction and fantasy author Mimi Mondal, who received her second Nebula Award nomination for the Dungeons & Dragons anthology Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, said she was “super excited” by the concept of AI-narrated books and the sci-fi future taking shape around her. However, she admitted that she would not recommend or buy such books if there was a human alternative.
“It’s not the fault of the AI, technically; it’s just that we’re bringing it into such an unequal world and turning it into yet another device of oppression,” she wrote in an email to The Hindu.
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Writer and editor Resh Susan, who reviews books on The Book Satchel blog, said that she listens to many audiobooks but finds AI/digital narrators “robotic and lifeless.” She also said she wouldn’t agree to review books read out by digital narrators.
“I do not find digital narrators good enough to compete with voice actors who are able to evoke emotions through their cadence and style of reading,” Ms. Susan said in an emailed statement, adding that a digital narrator might make her miss the audiobook’s finer details, thus changing her overall opinion of the book.
Also read: Explained | What are voice deepfakes and how are they used?
“I hope we focus on how new tech can help us perform faster and easier, and not look for ways where human work is undervalued and made replaceable,” she said.
From a reviewer’s perspective, Ms. Susan was concerned that the digital narrator was another factor that could affect the success of a book.
“A good book can become a mediocre audiobook [in] the hands of a bad narrator,” she warned.
Ms. Mondal also pointed out the irony of replacing human labour with AI, noting that people would lose their jobs even as production processes turned cheaper, making books more affordable.
“I can see how small presses and marginalised writers can benefit from using AI labour, and I don’t grudge them for grabbing that opportunity. We shouldn’t expect social justice to arrive on the shoulders of the weakest members of our community,” she said.
“It’s writers like me, who can afford to take a stand on this subject and still not lose their career, who should come out in support of our colleagues who risk losing their professions, so I am.”