For a while now the New York Times has been publishing recorded articles in the daily online issue. A very convenient feature – listening to articles in the background while exercising, driving or taking care of errands. While I prefer to read, this morning I was late, so I put my ear plugs in and listened during my morning workout routine. Since it takes between 30 and 60 min, I was able to listen to several articles. After a while I started tuning into the reading itself beyond the content that I was absorbing, and a few things came to my mind. First, I need to note that we are listening to audiobooks during longer car rides and frequently besides the content as such we are discussing the person reading it. Often the author-read books are the best since the intent of the text reflects also in the reading and in the deflections of the voice. The volume and other characteristics are adapted to the content. There are good readers and not so good readers. I do not want to associate this assessment with the person that is reading the book since in most cases we do not know them, but rather with other audible sensations – the clarity of the reading, perhaps the dialect of the person, the pitch of their voice. On the opposite side the reading at the NY Times is delivered by an automated voice – a women’s voice of that is actually quite pleasant. What I noticed today though is that it is monotone and not modulated and when an article ends it ends – meaning the voice just stops. Listening to several articles across a spectrum of contents it felt odd to have that very same unmodulated voice in all instances – as variable as the articles and their authors are – the voice was always the same. I think over time one starts relating to the reader in the case of an audiobook, but I cannot imagine this here. Looking far back, before I could read myself, our parents, grandparents and siblings were a limited list of readers delivering fairy tales and good night stories. Given their familiarity with the content, they would exercise their theatrical talents to make that reading more interesting and impactful.
I can imagine that technology will soon close this gap – we have reached the point of an automated and error free reading and I can foresee that AI with its experience pool on prior texts and possible true author readings will be able to develop some theatrical talent on its own.