AI already takes away audio book business

As people brace for the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and everyday living, those in the world of audio books say their field is already being transformed.

AI has the ability to create human-sounding recordings - at assembly-line speed while bypassing at least part of the services of the human professionals who for years have made a living with their voices.

Many of them are already seeing a sharp drop off in business.

Tanya Eby has been a full-time voice actor and professional narrator for 20 years. She has a recording studio in her home.

But in the past six months she has seen her work load fall by half. Her bookings now run only through June, while in a normal year they would extend through August.

Many of her colleagues report similar declines.

While other factors could be at play, she told AFP, "It seems to make sense that AI is affecting all of us."

There is no label identifying AI-assisted recordings as such, but professionals say thousands of audio books currently in circulation use "voices" generated from a databank.

Among the most cutting-edge, DeepZen offers rates that can slash the cost of producing an audio book to one-fourth, or less, that of a traditional project.

The small London-based company draws from a database it created by recording the voices of several actors who were asked to speak in a variety of emotional registers.

"Every voice that we are using, we sign a license agreement, and we pay for the recordings," said DeepZen CEO Taylan Kamış.

For every project, he added, "we pay royalties based on the work that we do."

Not everyone respects that standard, said Eby. "All these new companies are popping up who are not as ethical," she said,...