When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Audible is using AI narration to help publishers crank out more audiobooks David Uzondu Neowin · May 13, 2025 16:48 EDT Audible has announced a significant expansion of its library using artificial intelligence. The Amazon-owned service is tapping into AI narration technology to churn out many more audiobooks, tackling the challenge that while audiobooks are hugely popular and the fastest-growing part of publishing, a vast number of published books still don't exist in audio format. Audible has developed its own AI production tech, combining its experience with Amazon's AI smarts. Publishers keen to get their books into audio can choose from two pathways. There is an Audible-managed service where the company handles the entire process from start to finish. Or, publishers can use a self-service option to direct the production themselves using the same underlying AI tech. The AI system currently offers a growing selection of over 100 AI-generated voices. These are available in English, Spanish, French, and Italian, and even include different accents and dialect choices. Publishers producing titles this way will also benefit from upgrades to the voice technology as it gets better over time. This kind of rapid content scaling using AI is something other companies are exploring; for example, you've probably heard about Duolingo drastically speeding up the creation of new language courses by leveraging AI assistance. Looking ahead, Audible is also getting ready to roll out AI translation features in beta starting later in 2025. This aims to help publishers translate their audiobooks to listeners in different countries. The initial languages supported for translation will be from English into Spanish, French, Italian, and German. There will be options for translation: translating the text manuscript first, then narrating it (either with a human or AI voice), or a speech-to-speech option that tries to keep the original narrator's voice and style, but in the new language. Publishers can also get human language pros to review the translations for accuracy and cultural nuance if they want. As with any company adopting AI for creative work, there are ongoing discussions about the balance between efficiency, creative control, and the role of human professionals like narrators and translators. Audible states it remains committed to working with authors, narrators, and publishers as these technologies evolve to meet creative and business needs while keeping up quality. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed Source: https://www.neowin.net/news/audible-is-using-ai-narration-to-help-publishers-crank-out-more-audiobooks/ #audible #using #narration #help #publishers #crank #out #more #audiobooks

Artificial intelligence might be the future of the workplace, but companies that are trying to get a head start on that future are running into all sorts of problems. Klarna and Duloingo have been some of the poster children for the “AI-first” workplace. Two years ago, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski announced he wanted his company to be the “favorite guinea pig” of OpenAI, instituting a hiring freeze and replacing as many workers as possible with AI systems. Last month, Duolingo announced an AI-first shift, saying it would stop using contractors to do work AI can handle and only increase head count when teams have maximized all possible automation. Klarna, while still investing in AI, seems to have renewed appreciation for the human touch. And Duolingo is finding itself under attack on social media for its decision. Klarna’s Siemiatkowski tells Bloomberg the fintech company is about to go on a hiring spree in order to ensure customers will always have the option to speak to a live representative. The company did not say how many people it plans to add, but Siemiatkowski indicated Klarna would look at students and rural areas to boost its workforce. Last year, Klarna, in an announcement, said AI was doing the work of 700 customer service agents. Now it’s focusing on adding human connections. “As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality,” Siemiatkowski said. “Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.” But Klarna says it is still enthusiastic about AI. Duolingo’s AI-first push is much newer, and there have been no policy reversals on its part as of yet. But the company is facing a tsunami of pushback from the general public on social media after announcing the move, particularly on TikTok. The top comments on virtually every recent post have nothing to do with the video or the company—and everything to do with the company’s embrace of AI. For example, a Duolingo TikTok video jumping on board the “Mama, may I have a cookie” trend saw replies like “Mama, may I have real people running the company 💔” (with 69,000 likes) and “How about NO ai, keep your employees.” Another video that tied into the How to Train Your Dragon character Hiccup brought comments like “Was firing all your employees and replacing them with AI also a hiccup?” Other comments are more serious: “Using AI is disgusting,” wrote one user. “Language learning should be pioneered by PEOPLE. By making this decision, Duolingo is actively harming the environment, their customers, and employees when it hurts the most.” Another wrote: “What kind of audience do you think you’ve built that it’s okay to go ‘AI first.’ We don’t want AI, we want real people doing good work. Goodbye, Duo. If this is the way you’re going, you wont be missed.” Others claimed to have deleted the app: “Deleted Duolingo last week. A 650+ day streak never felt so meaningless once I saw the news.” Duolingo says much of that feedback is coming from people who don’t understand what AI-first means. “A lot of the feedback we’ve seen comes from a place of passion for Duolingo, which we really appreciate,” a representative told Fast Company. “To clarify, AI isn’t replacing our learning experts—it’s a tool they use to make Duolingo better. Everything we create with AI is guided by our team of learning design experts. . . . We’re committed to using AI with human oversight, to help us deliver on our mission to make the best education in the world available to everyone.” Companies, in general, remain excited about the potential cost savings of AI, sometimes for good reason. Duolingo’s stock is at an all-time high, and the company recently raised its sales forecast for 2025. A study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce and hand over automated tasks to the technology. As bullish as executives might be, however, that excitement has not made its way into the consumer space. Almost half of the Generation Z job hunters told the WEF they believed AI has reduced the value of their college education. And researchers at Harvard University say the technology is still threatening to people. “From early on in life, humans strive to manage their surroundings to achieve their goals. So they’re naturally reluctant to adopt innovations that seem to reduce their control over a situation,” wrote Julian De Freitas, an assistant professor in the marketing unit at Harvard Business School. “The possibility that AI tools might completely take over tasks previously handled by humans, rather than just assist with them, stirs up deep concerns and worries.”Update, May 12, 2025: This article has been updated with comments from Klarna and Duolingo. المصدر: https://www.fastcompany.com/91332763/going-ai-first-appears-to-be-backfiring-on-klarna-and-duolingo #Going #first #appears #backfiring #Klarna #and #Duolingo