Employment Threatened in Advent of AI Publishing- Expert

The First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, released an audiobook version of her memoir in her own voice. However, she will not be the one narrating it.

“I am profoundly honored to present Melania – The AI Audiobook, which is entirely narrated in my own voice using artificial intelligence,” she stated in a post on X. “Let the future of publishing commence.”

Trump is not the first individual to employ AI in this manner.

However, her decision to emphasize the technology and its application in media production suggests that AI may soon assume a more significant role in the production of a wide range of content, including news articles, videos, and television programs.

This decision also raises concerns about the sustainability of media employment in the face of this transformation.

Alex Connock, senior fellow in management practice at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, stated to CNN, “It is overly simplistic to assert that this is an inevitable reduction in the number of jobs.”

However, it is also naive to assert that there will be no alteration to the nature of employment.

According to the product description on Mrs. Trump’s website, her book will be narrated by an AI-generated duplicate of her voice that was “developed under Mrs. Trump’s control and direction.”

Experts assert that the utilization of AI for narration work is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in light of the fact that technology from companies such as Google and ElevenLabs.

ElevnLabs, the company that Trump employed to produce her AI audiobook, simplifies the process of converting text-based materials into audio that resembles a traditional podcast.

However, the use of AI was brought to the forefront by Trump’s announcement.

Clay Shirky, the vice provost for AI and technology in education at New York University, stated to CNN, “I do not anticipate that there will be a rush to replace voiceover.”

“While many of these events occur gradually, it is undoubtedly a significant milestone.”

The Trump audiobook is released at a time when technology titans are introducing tools that facilitate the creation of authentic video and audio content with minimal effort.

Google introduced a more sophisticated version of its video generation model that can generate audio, including dialogue between characters, to match the scene in the same week that Trump announced her audiobook.

The video creation tool Sora, which was released by OpenAI in late last year, was so popular that the company was forced to temporarily halt signups due to the high demand.

Earlier this year, the ChatGPT manufacturer encountered a comparable challenge when its image generation tool gained popularity due to its capacity to generate images that resembled the style of the Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli.

However, this does not necessarily imply that AI-generated feature films are imminent.

According to Shirky, the technology’s present iteration is optimal for the production of brief recordings that may be available on social media platforms.

It is more probable that television networks and production companies will seek novel methods to integrate AI into their current programs.

According to Connock, who provides consulting services to television production companies, there have been numerous encounters with individuals in the television industry this week who are interested in learning more about artificial intelligence.

He asserts that this represents a significant progression from the previous year.

According to Connock, producers are interested in developing AI replicas of TV personalities that viewers can engage with while viewing their program.

He attributes the heightened interest to a desire to remain current with the creators of social media.

“The traditional, old-school professional TV economy has come to the realization that in order to compete with the creators at all, they must at least match them shot for shot in terms of their ability to deploy those tools,” he stated.

Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and professor emeritus at the University of Washington, believes that AI has the potential to facilitate a transition from media that is intended for spectatorship or reading to digital content that is interactive.

“What if you could actually converse with Melania Trump about the chapter?” he inquired to CNN.

“That will be available in a book near you in the near future; it may not be with her.”

The release of Trump’s audiobook coincides with concerns regarding the potential displacement of human employment by AI as it becomes more adept at duties such as authoring books, creating podcasts, and writing code.

According to the Future of Jobs report published by the World Economic Forum earlier this year, 41% of employers anticipate downsizing as generative AI plays a more significant role in work-related tasks.

In a recent op-ed for the New York Times, Aneesh Raman, the chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, expressed concern about the potential replacement of certain entry-level positions by AI.

In 2023, the Writers Guild of America’s film and TV writers went on strike in part to prevent the replacement of certain aspects of their employment with AI.