Apple’s AI-Powered Audiobook Program: A Gamechanger or a Threat to Human Narrators?

Artificial intelligence has been a controversial topic in recent years, with concerns that it could potentially replace humans in various fields. Apple is now using AI to create synthetic voices for audiobooks on their platform, Apple Books.

The aim is to make it easier for authors, particularly independent ones and those affiliated with smaller publishers, to produce audiobooks by reducing the cost and complexity of the process. This new feature is reportedly already available, with the synthetic voices being labeled “Narrated by Apple Books”.

The program is currently limited to English language books and certain categories, such as romance and fiction, but not including mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, or fantasy. Apple offers four synthetic voices, Madison and Jackson for fiction/romance and Helena and Mitchell for nonfiction and personal development, that provide a decent listening experience but are not quite the same as a human voice.

While the use of AI instead of human narrators may be concerning to some, Apple asserts that it is not meant to replace professional narrators but rather to expand the number of books that can be converted into audio format. The audiobook market is rapidly growing and this new feature could help Apple increase their catalog.

The company states that they are committed to enhancing and celebrating human storytelling and will continue to develop their collection of human-narrated audiobooks.