ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
Only a year or so ago, publishers were raging at what they saw as rights grabs by tech firms using AI audio and other technologies to convert books from the medium in which they were purchased to another medium, usually sold separately and considered subject to a different set of rights. AI companies now seem to be performing these medium transformations as a matter of course, and I am hearing barely a whisper of dissent amid the wider battles over copyright and AI.
This week, ElevenLabs became the latest company to go all in on this multimedia approach. They have been making changes with their reader app, ElevenReader, bringing in the team behind Omnivore, a reader app that lets people, among other things, take notes in digital text files. The move will allow the platform to add enhanced features to increase the attractiveness and, therefore, the profile of what it has already been doing for a few months: essentially turning text into audiobooks in a wide variety of voice options.
ElevenLabs and AI-Generated Audiobooks
ElevenLabs is best known for its AI-generated audio, and several platforms have already partnered with the company to make it easier for writers and publishers to create audiobooks. But allowing readers to do the same thing, without extra payment to creators, feels like something people would have been up in arms about not long ago. I wonder if the larger AI rights debate has taken people’s eyes off the ball.
Pushback Against California’s SB1047 Bill
Meanwhile, turning to that debate, we know tech firms want to avoid legislation to clamp down on unauthorized use of creative works. Last week, two of the biggest—Microsoft and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)—joined forces to push back against California’s proposed SB1047 bill, which would regulate the use of copyrighted material.
One of the main arguments the companies make is that AI has the “right…to learn in the same way as people” and that it needs information to do so. Oh my…
