Apple discreetly rolls out AI-narrated audiobooks

The Apple Inc. logo at one of the company's stores in Sydney. (Image: Bloomberg)

Apple has stealth-launched AI-narrated audiobooks for select titles on its service, Apple Books.

The Cupertino technology giant said that its Digital Narration Technology was meant to help independent authors who may lack funds to convert their titles to audiobooks.

On its website, Apple says that once a request for digital narration is received, it will take one or two months to process the book and ensure it passes quality checks.

If it meets Apple's quality standards, the audiobook will be published on the store. The company also provides authors options for voices to choose from, and custom cover art that will be published along with the release.

Nominations and requests will be processed on "several criteria, including file quality, content compatibility (no complex formatting elements, and limited foreign language words and phrases), and editorial review".

Some more pre-requisites for the author include ownership of rights for the audiobook, the eBook must already be available on the store and the primary category of the book "must be romance or fiction (literary, historical, and women’s fiction are eligible; mysteries and thrillers, and science fiction and fantasy are not currently supported)".

Currently, Apple only supports English for digital voice. Authors are also required to sign up with a preferred partner - either Draft2Digital or Ingram CoreSource - to get their audiobooks produced.