Necessary Evils, aka AI Narration

I’d rather listen to an actual human any day, and to the best of my knowledge I have never purchased an AI narrated audiobook, but I do realise that a fully produced audiobook with quality narration is beyond the reach of the vast majority of independent authors. With that throat-clearing out of the way, here’s a head-to-head comparison of the two most prominent AI voice actor solutions, which as they often say, are only going to get better and more convincing. A cynical person might suggest it is only a matter of time before Audible lists an ostensibly human narrator whose true home is a server at Eleven Labs. In fact, they probably have already. Similar things have happened on Spotify, so why not in the audiobook space?