Project Gutenberg, the oldest digital library globally, utilized AI technology to convert thousands of ebooks into audiobooks, eliminating the need to hire human readers. This development raises concerns among actors who are currently on strike in the US, as they fear it may jeopardize their careers.
In collaboration with Microsoft and MIT, Project Gutenberg employed synthetic speech technology to transform over 5,000 ebooks from its free collection into audiobooks. These audiobooks are now accessible on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts and include titles like “The War Poems” by Siegfried Sassoon and “England, My England” by DH Lawrence, all of which have open licenses.
The audiobooks in Project Gutenberg’s collection are narrated in a male voice with an American accent that sounds quite natural, apart from occasional stilted pauses. It’s challenging to distinguish them as AI-generated speech.
Project Gutenberg’s AI Audiobook Reader Vs. Stephen Fry
However, compared to human actors like Stephen Fry, the AI-powered readings lack the versatility and depth that actors bring to their work. While Stephen Fry created distinct voices for multiple characters in the Harry Potter audiobooks, Project Gutenberg’s audiobooks are free, quick to produce, and scalable using text-to-speech technology. This technology poses a clear threat to the acting profession.
Project Gutenberg’s methodology for audiobook creation was published in a report titled “Large-Scale Automatic Audiobook Creation” on Sep. 7, and the project’s code is open source. The research team mentions in the report’s introduction that audiobooks require significant human effort in terms of creation, editing, and publishing. However, their system allows users to customize the audiobook’s speaking speed, style, and emotional intonation.
Project Gutenberg is a non-profit organization run by volunteers with a mission to promote the creation and distribution of ebooks. Ironically, the archive itself has been utilized to train AI models like Meta’s Llama.
Quartz has reached out to Project Gutenberg for comment.
Actors on Strike to Safeguard Their Livelihoods from AI
The current strike by actors in the US places a significant focus on AI. The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have been on strike since July 14, demanding better wages, a fair share of residuals, and protection against AI technology’s ability to create digital replicas of actors without their consent. These digital replicas encompass an actor’s image and voice.
In a letter to union members, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher emphasized the importance of protecting against AI’s existential threat to actors’ work, particularly due to the lack of regulation. Drescher highlighted that AI can easily and inexpensively create convincing digital replicas of performers’ voices, not only for video game characters but also by utilizing the actors’ own voice recordings to train AI systems.
It is worth noting that the Project Gutenberg method can generate an entire text-to-speech voice using just a single audio sample.
However, the majority of voice actors are not part of a union. Only about 18% of voice actors surveyed by the National Association of Voice Actors in 2022 are SAG-AFTRA members, while over 64% stated they were non-union. Given the industry’s lack of organization, AI’s encroachment on tasks previously reserved for humans will likely continue to increase. Unionizing their voices may be necessary to preserve the rights of voice actors.
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