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Those are some good use cases. I only really listen to full-length audiobooks and not podcasts. An AI voice is probably sufficient, especially for niche content, but I would MUCH rather listen to a book narrated by a human. There are nuances to pacing, tone, and voice that I don't think AI will ever be able to fully grasp.

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I listened to a lot of current AI „podcasting“ tools and wh ok me the voice is 95% perfect it does have its issues: - suddenly speeding up or slowing down - mispronunciation of non-standard words - weird pauses

Having listened to a great many podcasts and interviews ... these are all very much problems with human-embodied voices as well.

(The number of SV types who talk as if they're on coke / meth / speed is ... nuts. A certain A-Z lead character comes to mind. Piketty is another. It'd be less problematic if they weren't constantly tripping over their own words, but they are.)

Example of a human narration with a number of distracting issues:

<https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-big-baltic-bomb-clean...>

Throughout the piece, the narrator reads "ordnance" as "ordnances" (the word is both singular and plural), some awkward emphasis within phrases, and odd pronunciations ("malevolent" stands out). On the other hand, her pronunciation and accent of German words and place-names is excellent.

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