Last Update: January 06, 2023, 10:11 AM IST
Listings include a mix of free and paid audiobooks. (Image: Apple)
This feature is currently only available for Romance and Fiction books, with two digital voices – Madison and Jackson, with more coming soon.
Tech giant Apple has quietly launched a catalog of books narrated by artificial intelligence, with potentially huge implications for the multi-billion dollar audiobook industry.
As The Verge reports, the feature represents a major change in audiobook publishing, in which authors narrate their own books, a process that can take weeks and cost the publisher thousands of dollars.
According to Apple’s website, the feature is currently only available for romance and fiction books, with two digital voices — Madison and Jackson — and two more voices — Helena and Michelle — available for non-fiction books.
“We are starting with fiction and romance, and are accepting eBook submissions in these genres,” the company said.
At the moment, the service is only available in English, and Apple is being unusually picky about the books its digital narrators can read, the report says.
“Primary category must be Romance or Fiction (literary, historical, and female fiction characters are eligible; mystery and thriller, and science fiction and fantasy are not currently supported),” the website reads.
If users search for “AI narration” in the Books app, they will find a series of romance novels with a short notice that they are “narrated by Apple Books”.
“This is an Apple Books audiobook narrated by a digital voice based on a human narrator,” reads each audiobook listing that uses the company’s Digital Narration service.
The list includes free and paid audiobooks, and the artificial voice is about as good as users would expect – perfectly intelligible but with a distinctly artificial edge that lacks the warmth of a human narrator, the report said. .
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)