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Synthetic voices have been proliferating for years, and the generative AI boom of the new ’20s has sped that process right along. AI voices are everywhere—in podcasts, in political campaigns, and in chatbots where they maybe-not-so-subtly replicate celebrity voices. Soon, they’ll be all up in your audiobooks too.
Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook company, announced a trial program for generating AI voice clones to read works in its audiobook marketplace. The announcement came via a post in ACX—Audiobook Creation Exchange—Audible’s service that lets authors and publishers turn written books into audiobooks.
“We’re taking measured steps to test new technologies to help expand our catalog,” says the post, “and this week we are inviting a small group of narrators to participate in a US-only beta enabling them to create and monetize replicas of their own voices using AI-generated speech technology.”
Audible has stated that both narrators and authors will maintain control over how their AI voices are utilized, and all AI-generated narrations will undergo a review process by ACX to ensure accuracy and correct any errors such as mispronunciations.
However, this update might seem slightly at odds with Audible’s existing policies on audiobook narration. Despite these new developments, ACX’s submission requirements still mandate that all audiobooks be narrated by humans. Yet, in line with Amazon’s ongoing commitment to integrating AI, a comparable AI audio initiative was introduced last year for its Kindle direct publishing platform.
The Audible program is currently restrictive, involving only a specific set of narrators. Nonetheless, its potential for expansion is clear, pointing to a future where any author could produce an AI-generated voice to narrate their books. Similar advances are being made by other companies, such as Rebind, which encourages authors to clone their voices for AI uses, facilitating more interactive reader experiences. The reception among audiobook enthusiasts toward these AI narrators has been mixed.
I am personally eager to see how these sophisticated yet eerily perfect AI voices will evolve, especially for niche genres like dinosaur erotica.
Here’s a roundup of more consumer tech updates from the past week.
Google is expanding its capabilities for digitizing personal data, with plans to include passports next.
Last year, Google integrated digital driver’s licenses into its Wallet service, allowing Android users to keep their ID information on their mobile devices. Google will soon allow users to store their US passports on their phones as well, although they have not specified a date for this update. Read more about this upcoming feature.
However, there are some limitations. The digital passport in Google Wallet will only be recognized at certain TSA checkpoints that support digital IDs. View the map of supported locations. Google also advises keeping your physical passport with you, as digital IDs are generally not accepted outside airport settings. While this feature may not benefit everyone, it will be particularly convenient for those who travel frequently, making security checks less cumbersome.
Hey speaking of Google, the company also announced some good news for all of us filthy browser tab hoarders. Tab grouping is a feature in Google Chrome that lets you squirrel away all your browser tabs under group folders for easier sorting. (I’ll read them later, I swear!) Google says its grouping feature will soon be made to sync across platforms. That means you can seamlessly continue your desktop browsing journey on your mobile device, where you will definitely not just continue ignoring them.
Tab grouping will also soon be available on Chrome in iOS, and should be able to sync across desktops as well. How soon is all this coming? Well, again Google wasn’t quite clear about that. Regardless, better start collecting all those browser tabs now. Never know when you might need them again.
Meta—the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp company that also does AI—has announced that its AI services are set to colonize a new cultural realm: the Brits. Meta announced it will be training its AI models off data from the users of its platforms in the UK.
Specifically, the data will be collected from anyone who uses Facebook or Instagram in the UK, and then used to train Meta’s AI accordingly. In its announcement, Meta says it hopes this move will help its AI tools more accurately reflect British culture and speech.
Meta says UK users will receive a notification informing them of the change, and it will be possible for them to opt out of the data collection. The policy is sure to raise alarms among regulators and privacy advocates in the UK; both have already expressed concerns about this plan.
The news comes ahead of Meta Connect, the company’s product showcase and developer gathering scheduled for September 25 and 26. It’s not certain what the company will announce then, but perhaps we can expect at least a few more British accents in the metaverse.
Apple events are always a whole thing. This week, Apple announced the many details of its new iPhones, Apple Watch, and AirPods that can now double as hearing aids. It also regaled viewers with many of the same Apple Intelligence features it announced in June at its WWDC event but have yet to be released. All the same, Apple is very hopeful that its generative-AI-based tools will drive a bunch of demand for its new devices.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED reviews editors Adrienne So and Julian Chokkattu join the show to dish about their time at Apple’s headquarters and all the new hardware and software goodies the company trotted out.
