Audible is making audiobook listening more immersive. The Amazon-owned streaming service launched three new AI-powered features on Thursday to expand the book-listening experience. You’ll be able to explore character guides, interact with stories and access bonus content to learn more about cities and landmarks referenced in the book you’re listening to.
Yes, this means the ability to hold a conversation with a book’s character is on the horizon. Generative AI is the tool that’s powering the Interactive Story feature. Users will soon be able to engage, for instance, with Count Dracula’s rat-eating manservant, Renfield, through a new interactive story.
According to Audible, the interactive nature of this feature is guided by the creators and publishers of the titles it’ll be featured on, thus keeping the narrative grounded and believably connected to the events in the book. (Audible didn’t say who guides the feature on books by dead authors like Dracula’s Bram Stoker.)
“The character speaks first, assigning the listener a role, goal, and stakes; the listener responds in their own words, and the character reacts in real time,” Audible explains.
The Interactive Story feature and Renfield on the Run will launch later this fall, an Audible spokesperson told CNET. The press release says these new AI features are in beta testing and will roll out in a limited capacity to customers in the US and UK.
What I did find in Dracula, though, was the newly launched Character Guide feature, which tracks the speaking character in real time and offers an information card with details about the performer playing the role. It’s all on the player page, minimizing distractions.
The Character Guide feature is now available for George Orwell’s 1984 and will be part of Audible’s upcoming original audiobook Exoplanet, written by Benjamin Percy and executive-produced by Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir. Audible plans to expand this feature to let listeners interact with the guide and ask questions as the story progresses.
Visual Explorer has yet to launch, but this feature will provide listeners with additional imagery and visual context for locations and important moments featured in a given narrative.
“These new features invite listeners into a story in ways that simply weren’t possible before, marking the latest step in our nearly 30-year journey to push audio storytelling forward,” Audible’s Chief Content Officer Rachel Ghiazza said in a statement.
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