The five largest US publishing houses did not respond to requests for comment.
"Professional narration has always been, and will remain, core to the Audible listening experience," said a spokesperson for that Amazon subsidiary, a giant in the American audio book sector. The giants of US technology, deeply involved in the explosively developing field of AI, are all pursuing the promising business of digitally narrated audiobooks.Early this year, Apple announced it was moving into AI-narrated audiobooks, a move it said would make the"creation of audiobooks more accessible to all", notably independent authors and small publishers.