[1MachineElf]

Listening to an audiobook narrated by an AI voice can get old after a few hours. There is absolutely still hope for traditional voice narration, especially if different voice actors want to voice different characters in the story.

[ramesh31]

I imagine this will sit where the LibriVox recordings did before. "Good enough" to cover the vast amount of works that never received studio treatment, but not anything that will ever replace a human at the high end. Even if the likeness is absolutely perfect, people will still prefer to know they are actually listening to their favorite actor.

[jokethrowaway]

This is step 1. Bark already has some models which try to match the tone to what's written.

We'll get there.

[lacrimacida]

Why do we need to get there? What’s the end goal?

[onecommentman]

You should listen to these Project Gutenberg audiotexts…they are really pretty good. I would have no problem listening to them for an extended period. The real challenge Project Gutenberg faced was automating the removal of the random metadata noise from the original plain text versions of the content. And it will continually improve from acceptably good to excellent in short order with perhaps a tiny amount of hand tuning.

It isn’t just the blind who benefit. As you age, eyesight degrades and the mind dulls. At some point, audiobooks are a real boon, especially with PD texts where you can read until you get tired, then listen. Also the growing demographic of live-alone elderly like the background sounds of people talking in their residence, explaining part of the popularity of talk radio. They feel a little less lonely. These audiotexts provide an intellectually varied and overall healthier option. It seems like an Absolute Good to me.

[bombcar]

AI audiobooks also seem they’re ripe for “perfection over time” where parts are indicated where it’s not pronounced right or needs additional inflection, etc, and that can be rerendered.