I just listened to this AI generated audiobook and if it didn’t say it was AI, I’d have thought it was human-made. It has different voices, dramatization, sound effects… The last I’d heard about this tech was a post saying Stephen Fry’s voice was stolen and replicated by AI. But since then, nothing, even though it’s clearly advanced incredibly fast. You’d expect more buzz for something that went from detectable as AI to indistinguishable from humans so quickly. How is it that no one is talking about AI generated audiobooks and their rapid improvement? This seems like a huge deal to me.

  • jungle
    3•1 year ago

    I listen to a lot of audiobooks too, but I wouldn’t listen to something like this.

    Have you listened to the one OP posted? After a minute I’m sleeping. There’s no emotion, no tension, nothing.

    I can’t stress enough how bad OP’s sounds. Sure, it sounds natural when compared to what technology was capable of some time ago, but it’s dead inside.

    Good voice actors bring a book alive. This doesn’t.

    • @[email protected]
      2•1 year ago

      I hadn’t actually when I originally wrote this comment as I wasn’t somewhere that I could listen to audio (without being an obnoxious cunt and I won’t be one of those people even if the majority of people seem to be OK with it xD)

      However I would agree, I couldn’t listen to a whole book with this monotonous drone of a voice, however like you said compared to what was produced by voice to text type systems of the past this is miles ahead and I certainly look forward to the technology progressing to a point where it is listenable for me.

      I agree with good voice actors being essential for enjoyment, I think that is one of the reasons I fell in love with graphic audio productions over the last couple of years.