Former First Lady Melania Trump has released an audiobook version of her memoir narrated by an AI-generated replica of her own voice, proclaiming, “Let the future of publishing begin.” According to her website’s product description, the AI voice was “created under Mrs. Trump’s direction and supervision,” utilizing technology from the firm ElevenLabs.

While AI narration isn’t new, Mrs. Trump’s high-profile adoption has intensified discussions about artificial intelligence’s expanding role in media creation and its potential impact on jobs. Experts acknowledge a shifting landscape. Alex Connock, a senior fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, told CNN it’s “too reductive to say...that’s an inevitable cut in the number of jobs,” but also “fanciful to say there’s going to be no change to how employment works.”

This launch coincides with advancements from tech giants like Google, which recently debuted a more sophisticated video generation model capable of creating matching audio and dialogue, and OpenAI’s popular video creation tool, Sora. Clay Shirky, vice provost at New York University, described these developments to CNN as a “milestone,” suggesting a gradual evolution rather than an immediate mass replacement of human roles like voiceover work.

The announcement has amplified ongoing debates about AI’s potential to displace human workers, a concern highlighted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, which partly focused on preventing AI from replacing writing jobs. While some tasks may be automated, experts believe roles requiring nuanced human judgment and complex interaction, like investigative journalism, will be harder to replace.

Total views: 374