The audiobook service Audible, owned by Amazon, announced the launch of a new generative AI technology for creating audiobooks. From now on, selected publishers will be able to use Audible’s tools to convert print and e-books into audiobooks, choosing from over a hundred voices in English, French, Spanish, and Italian with various accents and dialects. Publishers will have the option to use a fully automated process or manage the creation of audiobooks themselves using the available tools.
Throughout the year, Audible plans to introduce a beta version of AI translation, which will allow translating texts and audio from English to Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Publishers will be able to choose between automatic translation and having results verified by professional linguists to enhance accuracy. The platform will also offer a feature to preserve the original style and voice of the narrator during audiobook translation.
Since last year, Audible has provided authors with the ability to independently convert their own e-books into audio format using the “virtual voice” technology. Currently, Audible’s catalog includes over sixty thousand titles marked “Narrated by: Virtual Voice,” indicating the popularity of this approach among those who lack the resources for traditional audiobook production.
The use of generative AI for narrating and translating audiobooks allows for faster expansion of the available catalog and opens up new opportunities for authors and publishers — it can help bring books to a wider audience in different languages. Audible emphasizes that publishers and authors will be able to choose whether to use a human or synthetic voice for narration, and this information will be clearly indicated for listeners.
