No doubt our forefathers of yesteryear would have been unable to comprehend what we call artificial intelligence today. That is, the ability of machines and software to emulate the human mind, our intelligence, and problem-solving abilities. They’d probably think such a thing was laughable and so farfetched, it was ridiculous to even talk about.
But it’s here today, and in a big way.
With anything as hugely complex and powerful as artificial intelligence, misuse is bound to happen. Examples are fraud, forgery, data manipulation, malware attacks, and so on. Ditto with some student using AI to do his homework for him.
But there’s benefits from AI, too. You might have heard the recent story about the Vesuvius Challenge where college students worked together to decipher ancient papyrus scrolls that had been carbonized to ashes in Pompeii in 79 A.D. To try to unroll the scrolls would have destroyed them, but this team worked tirelessly to interpret them and succeeded with AI. They won the $700,000 prize for their efforts, too. I was fascinated by this particular story because one of the students attended our state university less than an hour away from me. AI also provides huge benefits in medical imaging that can help with more accurate diagnosis in, say, cancers.
There’s a popular site called ChaptGPT where one can ask a question like… “I have lettuce, tomatoes, and hamburger. Make me a recipe.” And voila! One appears.
Another example. Prompt with “Write a story about a cowboy in Montana.” Again, the words stream across the screen.
Of course, if an author uses AI to write her book, that’s fraudulent and terribly unfair to the reader. I do know some authors use AI to help them with blurbs and taglines. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that, but maybe some would.
I never paid too much attention to AI, however, until last month when Amazon contacted me with an invitation to participate in their Virtual Voice audiobooks. Amazon launched this capability in November, but I hadn’t heard of it until the invitation arrived in my Inbox in February. Not everyone got the offer (I checked), but I was quick to give it a try.
Amazon’s motivation was that, in all the hundreds of thousands of books they offer, only 4% are in audiobooks. No doubt they are trying to increase their income stream, and one can’t blame them, especially when they make the offer too good for an author to ignore.
I found the experience pretty amazing. With the touch of a keystroke, I could change the virtual voice from man to woman, or from American to British. Within seconds. The audiobook is hooked with my ebook. If I make a change in the ebook, it automatically carries over to the audiobook. Pretty slick.
The biggest complaint from authors is the lack of human inflections. I get that. Some claim the virtual voice is too monotone. Somewhat, yes, but not bad, and truly, you get used to it.
There were parts where I wish my villains sounded harsher than what they did. But I felt that way with human narrators, too. There are human
narrators who are female and try to imitate a man’s voice and vice versa. A little amusing, so both ways aren’t perfect, by any means.
Yes, a change this big is hard to accept. I’ve been in this business a long, long time. I remember in 2007, the first e-reader was introduced. No one I knew had ever heard of such a thing, but a techy writer named Connie Crow, who belonged to my Romance Writers of America chapter, was one of the first to have her book available on an e-reader. She took the publishing world–and Romance Writers of America–by storm, let me tell you. Many authors decried the use of e-readers as being detrimental to brick and mortar stores and even the timber industry. Readers refused to read off an electronic device, determined to keep hard copies of books in their hands and on their shelves. Heck, I was the same way at first.
Suffice to say, the Kindle and Nook grew in huge popularity, changed MANY opinions, and none of us can imagine a world now without them. There are some that are saying the virtual voice audiobook will be the same way, and at a huge savings to authors (albeit at the cost of narrators losing their jobs, as with the Kindle). Like the Kindle’s technology has evolved, so will the virtual voice audiobooks’. It’s been said that these virtual voice audiobooks “is poised to revolutionize the audiobook industry.” (Hidden Gems Books)
I invite you to listen and decide for yourself.
So far, I’ve made three books as audiobooks (WYOMING WILDFLOWER, HANNAH’S VOW, and CHRISTIANA) with virtual voice. Amazon makes very clear to the consumer about it, so she knows what she’s getting.
Please take a look. ARMED & MARVELOUS is narrated by a human. HANNAH’S VOW is narrated by virtual voice. Just click the image for a brief sample, located below the cover on Amazon.
Virtual Voice vs Human Voice. I’d love to know what you think!
