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Audible unveils plans to use AI voices to narrate audiobooks
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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trained on stolen books? then I guess I can download these from anywhere I may find for free as well, right?
AI voices are not trained on books.
The ethical issue there is more around cloning celebrities
https://open.spotify.com/show/03fNX9EtXbfyVzR4z122Ir
but AI itself is
Not sure what you are trying to say here. AI itself is an equation.
AI models have been trained on copyright protected books illegally. Maybe the voice have not
In this case the AI voices are reading the exact copyrighted material so the original author or rights holder must be contacted to secure the necessary rights and licensing agreements. There is no free use argument.
Now, if the voices have been trained on copy protected sources to create a likenesses (e.g. Scarlet Johansson) then there could be a lawsuit.
This has actually got me thinking differently about AI all together.
The best use for AI needs to be for the individual. I want MY ai to read books or research with or complete tasks for me.
I don’t want another company to do it for me or monetize it or steal content with it.
Yep, copyright doesn't apply to AI generated content.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-appeals-court-rejects-copyrights-ai-generated-art-lacking-human-creator-2025-03-18/#%3A%7E%3Atext=U.S.+Circuit+Judge+Patricia+Millett+wrote+for%2Cthe+first+instance+by+a+human+being.%22
(edit: the original book copyright would still apply however... So would only be public domain if the book itself was also public domain)
How about I spin up an AI model that outputs a near 1:1 copy of the training data?
Does that circumvent the copyright?
Duno, probably to some extent, similarly to how remixes of music sometimes have to pay royalties to the source of the sample if it's recognisable...?
Actually would probably be more similar to the George Carlin AI impersonation lawsuit , but they settled, so idk.
free AI read audiobooks coming up
Well, yeah, you can. Whoever told you that you can't, don't believe them, they are probably being payed to say it. You could also pay for the book to support the author but most likely your money will not go to the author so don't bother.
I like your way of thinking
isn't the current law not recognising AI stuff for copyright?
IE, downloading their audiobooks illegally is impossible are they are by default in the public domain.
Hmmm, you might have a case but maybe not.
The US Copyright office currently does not recognize protections for AI-generated works, and for portions of complete works that are AI-generated. For example, if a comic has graphics generated by AI but a script written by people, the graphics and character likenesses, etc are not protected by copyright.
For audiobooks, the original work and the accompanying recording are both protected by copyright. The audiobook is considered a derivative work, so it may still be protected based on the fact that the original work is rightfully protected by copyright.