The company added the machine learning clause to its distribution agreements in 2019. But they also say that Findaway frequently prompts people to agree to updated agreements, usually with minor changes, when they log in to their accounts. Several authors told WIRED that Findaway has emerged as a reliable distributor, offering lucrative deals to list audiobooks across several platforms. The length of audiobooks, the complexity of the material, and the impressive skills of talented narrators make voicing books arguably the toughest challenge for synthetic voice technology. But some authors and narrators suspect that audio from their ebooks helped the company hone its technology to the complex task of narrating books. The company’s Books app lists titles with AI narration as “narrated by digital voice based on a human narrator.”Īpple has used synthetic voice technology for years, including for the Siri virtual assistant, driving directions, and accessibility features. ![]() When Apple announced its own set of digital audiobook narrators in January, the company said it hoped to eliminate the “cost and complexity” that producing a human-narrated audiobook can represent for small publishers and independent authors. Google began offering free synthetic narration for books in 2020. “The voice is how voice actors make a living,” Friedlander added, “and this is literally taking the words out of our mouths without our consent.” Adobe, maker of Photoshop and other image software, recently began training its own AI algorithms on visual creatives’ work unless they opted out. A range of tools have cropped up that allow anyone to clone voices for synthetic narration with a click, but to advance them, companies still need hoards of data.Īcross industries like entertainment and gaming, contracts that require voice actors to allow tech companies to train their AI models for generating digital narration on their work have become increasingly common, says Tim Friedlander, president of the US-based National Association of Voice Actors. Audiobook revenue has continued to grow even as book and ebook revenue has dipped, and synthetic voice technology has improved dramatically. Interest in automating the art of book narration has grown in recent years for business and technology reasons. “This is immoral and illegal,” Starling told WIRED, “Rights holders have the copyrights for the audiobook production only, but no claim on the narrator’s voice.” She’s pausing the release of three upcoming titles she planned to distribute via Findaway. ![]() Starling believes Findaway has misused the material that authors and narrators entrusted it with. Furlong says Findaway has not responded to an emailed request to withdraw all copies of his voice from Apple’s servers. ![]() Starling raced to email the platform to say she’d like to exercise that right, and soon received a response saying that the company had submitted her opt-out request to Apple. Findaway’s machine learning clause says rights holders can revoke that part of the agreement.
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