On Tuesday, Audible announced a major push to expand the availability of audiobooks using its new end-to-end AI production. Through select publisher partnerships, the Amazon-owned company will now offer AI-generated narration and, starting later this year, AI-powered translation, all to bring more stories to listeners in more languages.
“Audible believes that AI represents a momentous opportunity to expand the availability of audiobooks with the vision of offering customers every book in every language, alongside our continued investments in premium original content,” stated Bob Carrigan, CEO of Audible, in the announcement.
The initiative combines Audible’s decades of audio production experience with Amazon’s advanced AI tools, allowing publishers to turn written manuscripts into fully produced audiobooks faster and at scale.
The new service offers two production paths. Publishers can either opt for Audible to manage the entire process, from ingesting the text to publishing the final audiobook, or they can use the same underlying technology to produce audiobooks independently.
More than 100 AI-generated voices are available at launch, covering English, Spanish, French, and Italian, with multiple accents and dialects. Audible said voice quality will continue to improve over time, and titles can be upgraded as the technology evolves.
A beta translation feature is also set to roll out later this year, beginning with English translations into Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Publishers can choose between text-to-text or speech-to-speech translation, the latter designed to preserve the narrator’s original voice and style.
Both options allow for human review to ensure linguistic and cultural accuracy, and a built-in text editor will enable publishers to make further refinements.
Audible said it will continue working closely with authors, narrators, and publishers to ensure these tools align with creative and quality standards. As the technology matures, the company plans to add more languages and support a wider range of voices to serve a broader global audience.
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