How to Recognize AI-Generated Audiobooks in Libby
Contrary to what the title of this article might suggest, I don’t believe AI-powered voice generation is inherently bad. Of course, there are cases where it makes sense, such as preserving people’s voices when they lose the ability to speak, or turning your notes into an AI-powered “podcast” for on-the-go learning, or making written content more accessible for the visually impaired. And unlike more cumbersome older tools, modern AI makes it easy to generate a realistic voice that can be used in a wide variety of situations.
But, in my humble opinion, art is usually not a suitable application for AI voices. If I choose an audiobook, I’m almost certainly looking for an experience , not just a way to deliver the text. So I need a narrator with a talent for dramatic reading, someone who can voice all the different characters, convey intonations and emotions, and convince me of the believability of the story I’m listening to. I don’t want an AI voice whose training simulates these things but doesn’t actually perform them—and I definitely don’t want it to replace the work of a real person who can do these things.
The digital library lending app Libby states that it makes no decisions regarding AI-generated content on its platform; instead, the app simply provides borrowers with access to content that libraries themselves have purchased. This means that if you’re strongly opposed to AI-generated books and audiobooks, you can leave a review at your local library. And if you want to avoid listening to AI-generated audiobooks on Libby, there’s an easy way to detect them.
A clear sign that a Libby audiobook uses AI narration.
Fortunately, identifying an AI narrator for a book in Libby is easy, as long as the publisher has correctly identified the narrator—you just need to check who did it. First, select an audiobook, then scroll down to the About section. Under “READER,” look for “synthesized voice” or “digital voice.” These are two tags Libby uses to identify AI narrators, and they’re located next to the fictional name the publisher gave the bot that “narrated” the book. You can then click on that name to see all the books narrated by that AI voice and add them to a list opposite your “to read” list.
Typically, you’ll need to scroll down to see these labels, as they’re not always present on the cover or in the title. However, I’ve seen some audiobooks list the use of artificial intelligence at the top of the description, so keep an eye out for this when searching for a new audiobook.
Alternatively, you can search for AI-narrated audiobooks on Libby yourself to get a sense of what you encounter and which audiobooks to avoid in the future. As Mashable notes , since Libby typically labels AI-narrated narrators as “synthesized voice” or “digital voice,” you can use these keywords to quickly find a selection of audiobooks that use AI voices, or search among the AI voices themselves. For example, Jaden Skye “narrated” five audiobooks available on Libby, despite being a synthesized voice.
Of course, all of this depends on whether the publisher discloses the use of an AI-generated voice. If not, this method will be ineffective. In that case, trust your ears: if you catch the usual signs of AI-generated speech , such as an odd tempo or unusual pronunciation, don’t assume it’s a bad recording. Do a quick Google search for the voice actor’s name to confirm they actually exist.