Artificial Intelligence Audio Stories
“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t as scary as HAL. While AI might not win any awards for most terrifying costume this Halloween, it would win for being helpful! All kinds of things can benefit from responsible AI use from processing medical claims, to building cars to even writing.
YES! Writing! Creative Writing to be specific.
There is a lot of ways AI can apply to writing and it doesn’t stop at Grammar Check or language translations.
Here’s an example where I took last week’s poem THE MIDNIGHT PETS. These are AI voice performers. No humans are talking in this content.
Why did I do this?
Stories can be enjoyed in lots of different ways. I don’t have a budget or voice talent pipeline to just pump out audio dramas on demand. Using AI tools allows me to explore and build out (very quickly) stories in formats that I couldn’t do on my own.
In the comments last week, a few of you commented on how theatric THE MIDNIGHT PETS story seemed. I wanted to show that theatricality and I heard a few “Tim Burton” references (which made my heart smile). To that end, I thought Christopher Lee (a common fixture in Tim Burton films) ought to be the voice for the story. The voice selected isn’t Christopher Lee but it is an AI voice that sounds like him.
How much would it have cost me to get someone who sounded like Christopher Lee on Fiver or Upwork?
More than it cost me for the AI render time.
What about humans?
Humans are still important. I wouldn’t want to listen to a long form story with this voice but short flash fiction is fine. Humans can be more dramatic, can be more powerful and are appropriate for certain use cases. This use case, a quick story with a specific sound, the AI voice is just fine.
Now if people love this and want more, I might invest in a voice actor. I figure doing an audio voice like this is just like sketching out a picture. Here’s the idea. If I like it, if others like it, I’ll sketch further and invest more.
How did I build this & how much did it cost?
On the topic of cost, building the audio version of this cost $24 for the AI reading. I used tools I already had to mix the audio. Sound effects came from Storyblocks. If I round up, total cost was < $100 for the audio aspects. I did use tools like Adobe Premier Rush and Audio Audition for the audio mixing because I have those tools but you can use more cost effective tools.
How did I build this…well this is an interesting question and I am thinking about making an online course to show people how to use AI in their story telling. Tools to help you write faster, or tell audio stories like this or even create new experiences for your readers like Alexa Blueprints.
If I had a class where you built stories with Artificial Intelligence (creating a story from start to finish with AI), would you be interested?
I look forward to your thoughts!
Halloween is upon us and that means we need a Halloween story. And so, let’s get to it…
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
The Pumpkin Spider
I crawl
into mouth,
and hide inside.
I hang my tapestries on the walls
and entangle those
who wander here.
Sweet flesh inside this head
makes for sweet meat
in my feast.
A tower of milky wax
stretches up the center.
A perch
for me to watch all
from up high.
Nothing moves in here
without me seeing it from my tower
or feeling it in my web.
Home is safe
and I grow fat.
The cap comes off
a light stabs down
into my home.
I crawl
out through the eyes
smelling the sweet flesh
and my tapestries
burn.
My home
is gone.
My eyes go to the trees
up
up
into the bark
where a bat watches me
from up high.
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Thanks to Linda for hosting Poetry Friday this week. Check out her blog at https://www.teacherdance.org/.
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Have a great week!
