I found a new way to augment myself and maximize my time with Generative AI. Today, while jogging, I used the new AI Reader app by ElevenLabs to listen to a very long article with 10,000 words. This was great, because it was so tiring to read the PDF with tiny text.
We’ve had AI-powered narration for some time now – some news websites like CNA embed automated audio readings of their stories. Mobile browsers like Microsoft Edge can also narrate webpages to you. However, these tools are limited to website content.
The AI Reader app offers some quality-of-life improvements:
- You can provide website links or upload PDFs and ePUBs. It can also read from screenshots!
- The narration sounds natural and you can choose from several pleasant voices with American or British accents.
The app is free (for now) on iOS and Android. I already subscribe to ElevenLabs (US$22 a month) for its voice cloning service which I use for demos in my AI workshops. I think such Gen AI audio apps will remove many voice-acting and narration jobs, but will also stimulate more original writing from creators.
I’m busy as heck now, but I really want to spend more time writing my newsletter and using ElevenLabs technology to convert it into a podcast. And even if I don’t put out a podcast, readers can use the AI Reader app to listen to my written words.
(Image from ElevenLabs)