First girl Melania Trump’s 2024 self-titled memoir will signify the “way forward for publishing,” she stated, saying that an audiobook of her memoir could be narrated by an AI-generated reproduction of her voice.
Trump unveiled “Melania: The Audiobook” by way of X, proclaiming it as “A NEW ERA IN PUBLISHING.” In an hooked up promotional clip, the narrator declares, “My story. My perspective. The reality.” The seven-hour audiobook can be found on Trump’s private web site.
Software program firm ElevenLabs created the AI narration for Trump’s audiobook. Regardless of solely launching in 2022, ElevenLabs’ voice synthesis know-how has fueled a number of controversies after 4Chan users easily generated deep fake celebrities to spout hateful content material and a nightmarish harassment campaign targeted actual voice actors.
Since then, the corporate says it has tightened issues up so you’ll be able to solely clone your personal voice. Per Newsmax, Melania Trump said that ElevenLabs’ developed its reproduction “below my strict supervision” and it’ll “set up an unforgettable reference to my private story, in a number of languages for listeners worldwide.”
At the moment, Trump’s audiobook is just out there in English, however there are plans to launch further languages within the fall. ElevenLabs can create audio in over 30 languages together with Hindi, Spanish, and Russian.
A NEW ERA IN PUBLISHING
I’m honored to deliver you Melania – The AI Audiobook – narrated solely utilizing synthetic intelligence in my very own voice.
Let the way forward for publishing start.
Solely: https://t.co/xIfkkmL4YC pic.twitter.com/ab4Qb43AOC— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) May 22, 2025
Trump launched her memoir in the direction of the tip of final yr’s presidential election campaigns. It debuted on the prime of the New York Occasions hardcover nonfiction best-seller record, however don’t learn an excessive amount of into that. Trump’s memoir barely sold over 85,000 hardcover copies in its first week. Evaluate that to Michelle Obama’s “Turning into” which additionally debuted at primary and have become the best-selling hardcover of 2018, promoting 2 million copies in 15 days.
Though “Melania” didn’t generate large gross sales, it does have a 3.83 score on Goodreads. The ebook provided some insights into Trump’s life, together with how she met Donald Trump. She additionally stunned many with a pro-choice stance, writing, “A lady’s basic proper of particular person liberty, to her personal life, grants her the authority to terminate her being pregnant if she needs.”
AI audiobooks are on the rise. A number of years in the past, Apple quietly rolled out “digital narration” and, final yr, Amazon shared plans to use AI narrators, too. ElevenLabs boasts that faux audiobook narrators can save on time and prices. Per its web site, AI can narrate an audiobook “typically in a matter of hours” and also you don’t have to fret about paying it a residing wage.
Nevertheless, even ElevenLabs acknowledges that AI “lacks the nuanced emotional expression” of an precise individual. Critiques that AI narration sounds “alien” or “glitchy” are frequent. Nonetheless, the corporate has excessive hopes for its partnership with Trump. Per NewsMax, CEO Mati Staniszewski stated, “We’re excited that Melania Trump trusted our know-how to energy this first-of-its-kind audiobook. We sit up for serving to deliver this ebook to the general public in lots of different languages, in Mrs. Trump’s personal voice, quickly.”
