Despite what the headline of this article might lead you to believe, I don’t think AI voice generation is inherently bad. Certainly there are cases where it makes sense, like preserving people’s voices when they lose the ability to speak themselves, or turning your notes into an AI “podcast” to keep studying on-the-go, or to make written content more accessible to people with low vision. And in contrast to clunkier older tools, modern AI makes it easy to generate a realistic voice you can use in a number of scenarios.
But in my humble opinion, art isn’t usually a proper use case for AI voices. If I choose to listen to an audiobook, I am almost assuredly looking for an experience, rather than a simple means to get the text into my ears. As such, I want a narrator with a talent for dramatic reading, someone who will be able to voice all the different characters, tap into inflections and emotions, and sell me on the story I’m listening to. I don’t want an AI voice whose training mimics these things, but doesn’t actually accomplish them—and I definitely don’t want it taking the job of a real person who can.
Library digital lending app Libby says it does not make decisions when it comes to AI-generated content on its platform; rather, the app simply serves to make available to borrowers the content that libraries themselves have purchased. That means if you’re passionate about your stand against AI-generated books and audiobooks, you may want to give your feedback to your local library. And if you want to avoid listening to AI-generated audiobooks from Libby, there’s a simple way to spot them.
The obvious tell that a Libby audiobook uses AI narration
Luckily, it’s not hard to identify AI narration on Libby, assuming the publisher has labeled its books properly—you just need to check who narrated the book. First, select an audiobook, then scroll down to the information section of the page. Under “NARRATOR,” you’ll want to look out for “synthesized voice” or “digital voice.” These are the two tags Libby uses to identify AI narrators, which sit next to the fake name the publisher gave the bot that “narrated” the book. You can them tap the name to see all of the books read by this AI voice, and add them to whatever the opposite of your to-read list is.
You do usually need to scroll through the information section in order to see these labels, as the cover art and title won’t necessarily include this disclosure. That said, I have seen some audiobooks include an AI disclosure at the top of the description, so keep an eye out when browsing a new audiobook.
What do you think so far?
Alternatively, you can personally seek out AI audiobooks on Libby, in case you want an idea of what you’re up against, and which audiobooks to avoid in the future. As highlighted by Mashable, since Libby typically labels AI narrators as “synthesized voice” or “digital voice,” you can search for these keywords to quickly find a collection of audiobooks that use AI voices, or search through the AI voices themselves. Jaden Skye, for example, has “narrated” five audiobooks available on Libby—despite being a synthesized voice.
Of course, all of this is dependent on whether or not the publisher discloses this AI voice use in the first place. If they don’t, this method will fall flat. In that case, trust your ears: If you pick up on the usual tells for AI-generated speech, like weird pacing or odd pronunciation, don’t assume it was a bad take. Do a quick Google search for the name of the narrator to confirm whether they actually exist.
