I cannot listen to audiobooks read by text to speech they sound awful. Only human narrators are acceptable.
I applaud the effort, but the voices are too distracting for me to focus for more than a minute.
The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
121–130 of 195 posts
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I forget the exact quote but the thing I've seen making the rounds sums it up pretty well: Computers were supposed to do the work so people could make art and write poetry. Now the computers are making art and writing poetry and I still have to have a job. In another life I'd love to do voice over work. (I even have a face for radio!) But, instead, technology is being used to avoid even having humans do that type of…
> Every advance in AI is "how can we replace people and save money?" I think what happens is that the repeat jobs are automated, and the (remaining) people get the hard corner cases.
I think the thing that has surprised everyone in this revolution is that the opposite has happened. Musk wasted billions trying to automate vehicle manufacturing while AI is threatening to take the jobs of novelists and graphic designers.
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Like Louis CK said: "Everything is amazing and no one is happy." Everything is not amazing. Sure things are amazing from a technical perspective. But most tech advancements I think have been harmful to society in the last 30 years or so. Its awesome that computers are so powerful and we have awesome video and photos and can share things so easily. But technology should better lives, and not cheapen it, which it oft…
I forget the exact quote but the thing I've seen making the rounds sums it up pretty well: Computers were supposed to do the work so people could make art and write poetry. Now the computers are making art and writing poetry and I still have to have a job. In another life I'd love to do voice over work. (I even have a face for radio!) But, instead, technology is being used to avoid even having humans do that type of…
> Every advance in AI is "how can we replace people and save money?"
this is not true now, and also does not have to be true. Instead of a "look at the incentives" talk to someone having a bad comment moment.. instead we can be reminded of Doug Englebart, who said "computer systems can augment human intelligence and team interaction" and specifically NOT "replace humans" .. As I understand it, in Palo Alto, Doug found great interest among the DoD crowd .. a good portion of whom would have a second meeting after his demos, and then discuss how they can get back to the important work of replacing people.
Consider the incentives, consider who has an interest in this hype cycle, and sales profits. When you see a US visit to Vietnam this week, with MSFT pitching "social trust" AI services to "ordinary people" .. does this really sound like trust in the making? Is AI drones in combat really what we need now ? Replacing striking Hollywood writers and getting name-brand actors for pennies on the dollar, is that what "we" need?
I do not agree that AI can only replace people.. however, there is a lot of short term profit and control ready for those that do.. maybe something needs to be done about that?
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#124I picked Alice's Adventures in Wonderland[1] just to check out the quality and was met with:
>Lice was beginning to get very
>tired of sitting by her sister on
>the bank and of having nothing
>to do. Once or twice she had
Great concept but jeez the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
[1] https://ia801606.us.archive.org/35/items/synapseml_gutenberg...
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#125When I read Rikki Tikki Tavi to my 8 yr old daughter, we play a game. She asks me to change one of the words in the page and she tries to listen and see if she can figure it out. It is mentally taxing at the end of a long day to do that on the fly without pausing to figure out the word to slip in. And, my daughter is very sharp and catches them. I listened to a few of these. The voice sounds muted at times, as if the…
We're living through the Great Enshitification.
And it is living through us, or on us.
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
It might be worse than human narration, but at some point the economics becomes so loopsided that it's dominance is inevitable. One good thing I can see coming out of that will be an abundance of audiobooks of copyright expired books.
Are the economics actually better, or do they look better due to a lack of quality control? Because no TTS - even the most current AI ones - are perfect. They need corrections, which involves a human's time. And it's time that dictates prices, not skill (which largely reduces time).
The key is just which time is faster. If you are able to just listen to it once, and note a few errors, and slightly adjust, it may still may be much faster to use AI.
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it will never replace sitting next to someone and them showing you photos It definitely does replace that. It sucks so much to be trapped next to someone showing you their photo album or vacation slides, when you don’t really care, that this became a stock scene in 20th-century comedy TV series and films. Nowadays when people are sharing their photos online, that gives their peers the choice of whether to look or w…
The photo slide show of someone's vacation was a stock scene in comedies. But have you never sat down with family and went through old photos? Having conversations about where was that? who was this? who was this as a baby? Its a very different and much more personal experience than flipping through facebook.
Sure have, it’s hellacious. I don’t give a fuck about who that baby was, why would I? Relations who my parents only vaguely remember going somewhere boring that I would never go, or someone’s 12th trip to the same lake, is a great use for Facebook. Most people are crazy boring, if I care I can always ask.
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it will never replace sitting next to someone and them showing you photos It definitely does replace that. It sucks so much to be trapped next to someone showing you their photo album or vacation slides, when you don’t really care, that this became a stock scene in 20th-century comedy TV series and films. Nowadays when people are sharing their photos online, that gives their peers the choice of whether to look or w…
You’re talking about _being shown_ photos you don’t care about, while GP is talking about showing your own photos to someone. I agree with the example you’re discussing, though.
Ah, you’re talking about main character syndrome. Showing pictures to someone is one of the cruelest things you can do; you’re probably boring and a terrible storyteller (most people are) but they’re going to feel obligated to not tell you that.
It’s always amazing to me that people almost universally hate other people’s slideshows, and then don’t have the self awareness to realize that they do the exact same thing.
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#129Oh, snap, we've been working on importing Gutenburg to LR: https://www.languagereactor.com/m/t_en_- We're ranking them using the download count, and also this prompt to chatGPT (it's primarily for language learners): "Is this text engaging and interesting for a modern reader, someone not into fine literature? Rate the text excellent, good, ok or poor. I don't want crusty, flowery, contorted language, talking about bu…
It's amazing that a decade ago I'd have called you an exceptionally demented individual for doing this, but these days there's so much stupid unconscionable shit going on with AI that it hardly stands out.
Re: The Project Gutenberg Open Audiobook Collection
#130When I read Rikki Tikki Tavi to my 8 yr old daughter, we play a game. She asks me to change one of the words in the page and she tries to listen and see if she can figure it out. It is mentally taxing at the end of a long day to do that on the fly without pausing to figure out the word to slip in. And, my daughter is very sharp and catches them. I listened to a few of these. The voice sounds muted at times, as if the…
> Like Louis CK said: "Everything is amazing and no one is happy." Everything is not amazing. Sure things are amazing from a technical perspective. But most tech advancements I think have been harmful to society in the last 30 years or so. Its awesome that computers are so powerful and we have awesome video and photos and can share things so easily. But technology should better lives, and not cheapen it, which it oft…
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