On Wednesday, YOMIBITO Plus, a new audiobook app from Sony Music Entertainment, was released. Classic works of Japanese literature are read in the app using three well-known voice actors’ synthesized voices that CoeFont, an AI startup, has recreated using AI. An AI-replicated voice from Shichir Umeda (Pochita from My Life as Inukai-Puppy, san’s Izumi from Shikimori’s Not Just a Sweetie) narrates this video: https://youtu.be/kkUKbNR6Tn8
To build a vocal “font,” which can subsequently read any text aloud, SCoeFont claims it can require at least 15 minutes of voice samples from a human. At the very end of the video above, there appears to be a brief sample of an artificial intelligence (AI) voice that belonged to the late voice actor Kenji Utsumi(Alex Louis Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, Senbei Norimaki in Dr. Slump, Raoh in Fist of the North Star). Kentar Utsumi, son of Kenji Utsumi and head of the Ken Production talent agency, offers supportive commentary on the technology in the film.
Utsumi reading the poem “Ame ni mo Makezu” (Be Not Defeated by the Rain) by Kenji Miyazawa, Natsume Sseki reading “I Am a Cat and Botchan,”  Katsuyuki Konishi reading “Rashmon” by Rynosuke Akutagawa, and Umeda reading “Run, Melos!” by  Osamu Dazai are among the works currently available with AI-replicated voices.
Just until March 28, 2024, will the app be offered without charge.
Alexis Boutilier is from Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a high interest in all things tech and loves to stay engaged on all the latest appliances and accessories.
