Yuck. Your Next Audio Book Might Be Read by Judy Garland

Ew, nooooooo

I set up the personal voice synthesis on my phone, just to see, and it's SPOOKY. Maybe I'm not the right judge, but it sounds exactly like recordings of me speaking (different from how it sounds inside, of course)

Can you make it sound like you speaking through a fan?

I listen to a LOT of audiobooks. The amount of mispronunciation from a human brain reading the English language is notable. I have also seen a lot of automated subtitles. Having Judy Garland’s voice butchering an audiobook has very little appeal to me. I make choices for audiobooks based upon the reader as much as the writer.

It would have some appeal for those books voiced by truly awful (to my ear) voice actors. But I suspect that the technology right now isn’t there yet.

Foggy : As a 'truly awful voice actor' who has done a very few chapters for Librivox recordings, I can't argue with you.

Dead people can't demand a salary, so this hardly surprises me.

Maudeline : A big issue with living actors is that they are already having their voices and images stolen and used without permission or pay. But yeah, there’s a strong push for all creatives to create wills that include language denying use of their IP for any technology.

They claim AI stole their voices. Now they’re suing ...

Foggy : Yeah, that's pretty sad all around. And good on them for fighting back.