Pocket FM has announced a partnership with ElevenLabs to rapidly convert text scripts into audio content using artificial intelligence. This collaboration aims to revolutionize the process of creating audio series, making it faster and more cost-effective for content creators.
The partnership comes on the heels of Pocket FM’s successful $103 million Series D funding round in March. During its test phase, the company already produced 30,000 hours of audio content using ElevenLabs’ AI technology. With the full roll-out expected in the coming weeks, Pocket FM anticipates tripling its content library, which currently boasts over 100,000 hours of audio content.
The new tool integrates ElevenLabs’ technology, offering writers a selection of 50 voices for content conversion. Mati Staniszewski, co-founder of ElevenLabs, emphasized that their tool can understand the context of the writing and automatically infer emotions through the voice.
While the partnership promises increased efficiency and content volume, it also raises concerns about the quality of AI-generated content and its impact on human voice-over artists. India’s Association of Voiceover Artists (AVA) has expressed worry about the potential loss of livelihoods due to AI takeover in the industry.
Pocket FM asserts that engagement with AI-generated content in its experiments is “as good as human voice-over production.” However, the company, along with competitor Kuku FM, does not currently label content to indicate AI involvement in the creation process.
As the audio content landscape evolves with AI integration, the industry faces challenges in balancing technological advancements with maintaining content quality and addressing the concerns of human artists.
