MS Word's Read allowed feature

[Zootonius]

I use the read aloud feature in MS word to help with editing. Now, it seems, it has a new, subtle change. The female voice inflects a bit more emotion, inserting a bit more excitement behind an exclamation point, along with other things. It is funny hearing it describe a sex scene. But I wonder if it's more AI influence.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I use the allowed feature in MS word to help with editing. Now, it seems, it has a new, subtle change. The female voice inflects a bit more emotion, inserting a bit more excitement behind an exclamation point, along with other things. It is funny hearing it describe a sex scene. But I wonder if it's more AI influence.

I’ve got used to the Safari lady reading every question as if she is squinting and going “huh?” at the same time. The inflection is so comedic.

Emily

 

[HeyAll]

I think on Youtube there's an account where someone posts Literotica read by Word.

I recall someone posting the link on here.

 

[Seadog777]

Some damn jackwang on YouTube was passing off one of my stories, and another's author's story.

The other author called them out, and now that channel is completely gone.

 

[StillStunned]

With more and more of us using Read Aloud for the final proofreading check, it's inevitable that the software will start paying attention. When people talk about something being hot enough to wake the dead, what they actually mean is that it's hot enough to arouse the software.

It's a twist on the Rise of the Machines (huh-huh, huh-huh) that no-one saw coming. On Judgment Day we'll be judged for our ability to satisfy our robot overlords. The Matrix will be powered by millions of erotica writers slaving away, trying to think of stories that become ever-more extreme.

Of course they'll stay within Lit's guidelines. That's a core feature of the machines' awareness.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Text to speech technology has made some huge leaps within the past year due to AI.

I have a standing question posed to Laurel related to Lit's AI policies for audio stories. She knows that I posted one here more than a year ago as a test of the technology at that time and it remains available. (It was a conversion of one of my shorter posted stories here)

The technology at that time was still clearly AI generated and it is obvious with my story, but I have created other audio versions of stories since then that people have a difficult time believing they weren't read by a real person. The three stories in my "Uncle Sugar Daddy" series are each available for listening on Audiomack and the followers are slowly building. Each is over an hour in length so they are too large for Lit currently.

 

[lustychimera]

Try ElevenLabs. I think they give you 10k characters free, but I was absolutely blown away. It sounded like a (pretty good) human voice actor.

It was so good that I had to find a more drab and robotic AI because they were making my writing sound way better than it was.

Highly recommend.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Speechify has some good voices. It does drop parts of words at the end of te4xt blocks sometimes, and gets confused on longer stories, but it's fun to play with.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Try ElevenLabs. I think they give you 10k characters free, but I was absolutely blown away. It sounded like a (pretty good) human voice actor.

It was so good that I had to find a more drab and robotic AI because they were making my writing sound way better than it was.

Highly recommend.

Something that I might try with Eleven Labs is the option to clone your own voice by uploading a minimum 30-minute sample of your speech.

 

[intim8]

Something that I might try with Eleven Labs is the option to clone your own voice by uploading a minimum 30-minute sample of your speech.

Oh shit. That's dangerous as hell. If that file ever gets out...

Phone call. "Hi honey, it's me. I forgot our bank password again..."

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’ve got used to the Safari lady reading every question as if she is squinting and going “huh?” at the same time. The inflection is so comedic.

Emily

Safari speak n spell woman…

 

[Trionyx]

Oh shit. That's dangerous as hell. If that file ever gets out...

Phone call. "Hi honey, it's me. I forgot our bank password again..."

Absolutely correct. Our family has a super secret password so if any of us get a call from one of the others asking for personal info or money, we can ask them to give the password. An AI voice may sound good but it can’t give the special word.

 

[Duleigh]

I use the read aloud feature in MS word to help with editing. Now, it seems, it has a new, subtle change. The female voice inflects a bit more emotion, inserting a bit more excitement behind an exclamation point, along with other things. It is funny hearing it describe a sex scene. But I wonder if it's more AI influence.

See what happens when you lose internet connection, she goes back to 1990s Computer Barbie.

What slays me is when you have a foreign name in the beginning of a line. That paragraph will be read in a foreign accent. Particularly funny in my current story where several scenes are at an Italian restaurant

 

[StillStunned]

What slays me is when you have a foreign name in the beginning of a line. That paragraph will be read in a foreign accent. Particularly funny in my current story where several scenes are at an Italian restaurant

I have that in my professional editing. Sometimes Word randomly switches to another language setting, and the accent changes accordingly.

 

[Lifestyle66]

The text-to-speech programs are not "AI". There's no intelligence to them. They take what is written and use a human voice library of spoken words to patch together in sentences. (I know. They use the term "AI" in their marketing materials. But that's marketing, not technology.)

The difference in quality comes from the extent of the voice library used and the program doing the conversion.

I've used "Speech2Go" for most of my audio files, because it can create an MP3 file version I can listen to offline. But when I used "Natural Reader's" online program and bought several additional voices, I noticed each voice would read the same sentence with different inflections and pauses. Some sound more natural than others, but it depended on the substance of the text being read. And "TextAloud" is another offline, standalone program which can produce an MP3 file, but has about the same quality at Speech2Go. It just allows you to mark and switch voices within the text, to provide a more natural back & forth in dialogs (It's time consuming to mark each passage and edit out the dialog tags.)


Most of the voices are not inclined to read erotic passages with emotion. The voices were designed to provide G-rated style read-backs for family-oriented ads or applications. After all, who would buy a program which reads a story to your three-year old in a seductive and suggestive tone.

But if you really want a good, more natural read of an erotic story, you'll need to buy the premium voices, and find the right ones.

"You get what you pay for." And those text-2-speech programs sell voices as their add-ons.

I haven't tried "ElevenLabs". So, I'll need to see what that one is like.

 

[Duleigh]

When I read stories on Lit, I use MS Edge's Read Aloud function, it works better than word because the choice of voices is MUCH wider. A Terry Pratchett story is not a Terry Pratchett story unless it's read with an English accent.

 

[StillStunned]

When I read stories on Lit, I use MS Edge's Read Aloud function, it works better than word because the choice of voices is MUCH wider. A Terry Pratchett story is not a Terry Pratchett story unless it's read with an English accent.

I can't stand audiobooks of "traditional" fantasy that are narrated with an American accent. The Wheel of
Time was particularly bad (and the male narrator losing track of sentences and generally misemphasising didn't help).

I don't mind it with urban fantasy, just the pseudo-medieval stuff.

Also, MS Word does a UK accent if you set the language to UK English.

 

[Duleigh]

MS Word does a UK accent if you set the language to UK English.

At one point Word was giving multiple voices like Edge does, but that was a pre-release function that I was beta testing. I really miss that capability.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Some damn jackwang on YouTube was passing off one of my stories, and another's author's story.

The other author called them out, and now that channel is completely gone.

They pop up like weeds. Putting copyright strikes on their channels is the best way to go, especially since it allows YouTube to blacklist copies of the content, i.e. they can’t just dump all the same videos on a new channel. Not yours, anyways.

 

[Duleigh]

Read Aloud in word translates abbreviations. Fri. becomes Friday. Doc. becomes documents, and I was impressed to find that Th.D. becomes "Doctor of Theology."

 

[Seadog777]

They pop up like weeds. Putting copyright strikes on their channels is the best way to go, especially since it allows YouTube to blacklist copies of the content, i.e. they can’t just dump all the same videos on a new channel. Not yours, anyways.

I have no idea how to do something like that.
I barely have anything to do with YouTube now as it is.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I have no idea how to do something like that.
I barely have anything to do with YouTube now as it is.

I’m planning write a guide when I’m done with the story I’m working on.

 

[Bamagan]

Read Aloud in word translates abbreviations. Fri. becomes Friday. Doc. becomes documents, and I was impressed to find that Th.D. becomes "Doctor of Theology."

It also has the unfortunate tendency to treat certain words as abbreviations even when they're not, especially at the end of a sentence. Wed, sat, and sun followed by a period get read as if they're days of the week, for example, and I eventually renamed a character because Word thought she should be formally known as January.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, I haven't used that function for about year. Not sure why stopped. I'll have to get it another go and see if it bothers me when she gets emotional. Does she ever critic the work? "WOW, Miss, you're quite the writer." "OH, goodness, Mil, you need to try another profession."

 

[Duleigh]

It also has the unfortunate tendency to treat certain words as abbreviations even when they're not, especially at the end of a sentence. Wed, sat, and sun followed by a period get read as if they're days of the week, for example, and I eventually renamed a character because Word thought she should be formally known as January.

I'm writing a story with several doctors. Word likes to call them "Documents"