The Apple audiobooks are narrated by a text-to-speech artificial intelligence algorithm.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is seeking to reduce the cost and complexity of creating audiobooks by using AI-powered narration instead of a human voice. These digitally read audiobooks are now available on Apple Books and the facility could be a boon for smaller publishers and lesser-known authors that previously had to use a human narrator. Plus, the manual process was expensive and time consuming. (SILICON ANGLE)

According to The Guardian, which first reported the development, the market for audiobooks has shown strident growth in recent years, with sales surging by 25% last year to $1.5 billion. According to industry estimates, the global audiobook market could amount to as much as $35 billion by 2030.

AI-narrated books suffer, however, from the mechanical intonation of the digital voice, and the struggle to hold the attention of the listener for long periods of time. Authors would also have to cough up 30% in royalties to Apple, which has traditionally sold books on its platform as a reseller.

As the technology improves, AI-narrated audiobooks could sound much better, and the move by Apple to shift from being a retailer to a producer of audiobooks could pay off in spades.

On its website, the company has shown a table that compared the benefits of its own AI system compared to Kindle’s Direct Publishing.

The iPhone-maker  has unveiled the project after some delay. Originally scheduled for November, the company paused it amidst layoffs at Meta, the uproar surrounding Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, and the tech downturn.

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Images credit: Apple Inc