Why AI transcription?
Amazon/Audible usually have both the orignal paper/e-book and the audio version, surely they just need to provide the text from the book and let the AI match the spoken word to the actual text...
Oh, wait, that would be blatantly breaking copyright, by providing the actual text. Letting the AI listen and transcribe gives this the halo of respectability.
As a long-time Audible subscriber, I have to say I find this idea appalling and appealing. This is just another example of big tech trying to circumvent the law. If I want the text to an Audiobook, I can generally buy the text copy at a discount (or vice-versa - Whispersync). Whilst the service is interesting and for hard to understand passages useful, I think this is going too far. At the end of the day, the book is the result of somebody's hard labour (plus editors etc.) and, likewise, the audiobook is the hard work of a voice artist and production team.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
