Surprise: Many People Prefer AI Audiobooks, New Study Finds
Even with some of the backlash surrounding the AI Michael Caine-led audiobook of Homer’s “Odyssey” poem, it appears many listeners prefer an artificially generated voice to a human one. A new Edison Research at SSRS study commissioned by Spoken, an AI audiobook company, revealed that the company’s multi-voice productions achieved a higher favorability rating than human-narrated productions.
Reported by 1 outlet — Variety. See all sources ↓
Even with some of the backlash surrounding the AI Michael Caine-led audiobook of Homer’s “Odyssey” poem, it appears many listeners prefer an artificially generated voice to a human one. A new Edison Research at SSRS study commissioned by Spoken, an AI audiobook company, revealed that the company’s multi-voice productions achieved a higher favorability rating than human-narrated productions. The study, conducted in May 2026, is based on a survey of 1,005 fiction audiobook listeners split into two groups, each of which were made to listen to excerpts of either an AI-generated audiobook or a human-narrated one. During playback, the respondents didn’t know that AI voices were used, and they were not told which method was used for the production before they heard them.
Read the full report at Variety ↗
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- What's the story?
- Even with some of the backlash surrounding the AI Michael Caine-led audiobook of Homer’s “Odyssey” poem, it appears many listeners prefer an artificially generated voice to a human one. A new Edison Research at SSRS study commissioned by Spoken, an AI audiobook company, revealed that the company’s multi-voice productions achieved a higher favorability rating than human-narrated productions.
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- 1 outlet, average source rating 6.0/10.
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- 10m ago.
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Surprise: Many People Prefer AI Audiobooks, New Study Finds
Sources1TypeCoverageVariety