Amazon continues to invest in generative artificial intelligence. This past Monday, Jeff Bezos announced that the company will use this technology to “generate” narrators for audiobooks.
Today, hundreds of programs and models capable of generating voices with great detail are easily found. Big companies like Amazon also want to use this to their advantage, as in the case of Audible. A post within their official blog confirms this.
For Amazon, this represents a great opportunity to “bring more books to life on Audible.” Thus, this week, they have invited a small group of narrators to participate in the beta version, which is currently exclusive to the United States. According to the statement, this will allow these professionals to “create and monetize replicas of their own voices using artificial intelligence-generated voice technology.”
And how does it work? To begin with, beta participants can create a replica of their voice entirely for free. To do this, they will first have to send a sample recording to ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange). This recording will then be used to create their artificial replica.
However, this does not mean that authors can use any voice they want. In the end, the narrators will be the ones who decide which projects to lend their voice to, whether it’s live or generated by AI. In addition, the narrators can use the ACX production tools to review the entire process and edit any details, such as pronunciation errors, rhythm, etc.
Audible will also implement a royalty system. The goal is for narrators to receive financial compensation for each audiobook that uses their “voice.”
