Amazon's Audible has announced an innovative plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to train the voices of professional narrators in order to produce high-quality audiobooks. Starting this week, selected audiobook narrators from the U.S. will participate in the AI training process, ensuring that the AI-generated voices can compete with those of professionals. Narrators will have the opportunity to review the AI-generated voices to ensure they align with the style and tone of the work, and to fine-tune the AI's pronunciation and pacing. Audible has committed to compensating participating narrators based on book titles and royalty sharing.

Amazon has launched the AI Cloning Narrator project aimed at accelerating audiobook production. The project invites narrators to submit recordings to train AI for 'voice cloning'. Narrators can choose to participate in the project voluntarily, including live performances or AI-generated recordings. Audiobooks using AI cloning will be labeled on the product detail page, and narrators will be compensated through a royalty-sharing model, requiring narrator consent for AI cloning use. After beta testing in the U.S., this feature will expand to rights holders, aiming to provide narrators with more creative opportunities and enhance the audiobook market.

Amazon's audiobook service Audible is introducing AI voice training technology to generate new audiobook recordings, with plans to invite professional audiobook narrators in the U.S. to participate starting this week. The trained AI will be used for recordings, with narrators having the right to approve the use of their synthetic voice for specific works and the ability to edit pronunciation and pacing. Narrators participating in the program will be compensated for audiobooks created using their AI voice based on book titles and royalty splits.

Audible, the audiobook platform owned by Amazon, is testing an AI assistant named 'Maven' to provide personalized audiobook recommendations. Users can simply describe their needs in natural language, such as 'I'm looking for an inspirational novel with a female protagonist,' and Maven will recommend suitable content from nearly a million titles. This feature is currently available to some iOS and Android users in the U.S., covering about half of the audiobook library, though the specific details of the AI model have not been disclosed. Audible is also exploring the application of AI in generating book lists, summarizing reviews, and providing AI voiceovers.