Apple has launched a text-to-speech AI narrated service for its Apple’s Books platform.
According to The Verge, the move could have implications for the multi-billion dollar audiobook industry. Apple claims the move opens up audiobooks accessibility, saying the “digital narration” reduces the “cost and complexity” of creating the necessary audio.
Currently, the feature is only available for romance and fiction offerings with two different voices. The service hopes to add two more voices for non-fiction books. Also, English is currently the only available language offered.
The shift to AI-narrated books is a direct opposition to Amazon’s current rules for Audible, which expressly state that audiobooks submitted and offered on the platform must be narrated by a human. Amazon Kindle removed text-to-speech offerings more than a decade ago due to copyright concerns.
