Apple has introduced AI-powered audio narration for some novels on Apple Books, at a time when there is much discussion about ChatGPT and how generative AI may eliminate jobs. The firm claims that this function will assist independent authors who might not be able to convert their novels to audiobooks due to “the cost and complexity of production” on its website for authors. Only a few titles are now read by voices created by Apple’s AI. The narrator section for these books will say “Apple Books” for users to view.
Although Apple claims the service is for independent authors, in order to have their book read by one of Apple’s AI voices, authors presently need to join up with one of Apple’s partner publishing businesses, such as Draft2Digital or Ingram CoreSource.
Through the partners stated above, Apple is already taking entries in the romance and fiction genres, with support currently limited to literary, historical, and women’s literature. Additionally, it has begun narrating nonfiction and self-development books with AI technology. Apple now offers four voices in the soprano and baritone categories: Helena, Mitchell, Madison (romance and fiction), and Jackson (self-development and non-fiction). Apple didn’t say what training data it is utilising to tune these voices, despite the company’s claim that they are trained in particular genres.
“Apple Books digital narration brings together advanced speech synthesis technology with important work by teams of linguists, quality control specialists, and audio engineers to produce high-quality audiobooks from an ebook file. Apple Books has long been on the forefront of innovative speech technology and has now adapted it for long-form reading, working alongside publishers, authors, and narrators,” Apple said on its website.
If you check at the audiobook titles in the Apple Book store, you’ll see that the author usually narrates them, with occasional help from other guests or voice actors. Apple’s AI-generation suit is likely designed to do away with the requirement for seated narration studio recording. Results take time even with this method, though. According to Apple, it takes “one to two months to process the book and execute quality checks” once an author files a request.
Apple specified that the title is released as soon as the processing is finished if there is not enough time for post-production verification. The corporation gave no information about potential flaws in such a hurried process or how the final product would sound.
