For the first few seconds, the narrator of Kristen Ethridge's new romance audiobook, Shelter from the Storm, sounds like a human being. The voice is light and carefully enunciated, with the slow pacing of any audiobook narrator, as it begins: "There's a storm coming, and her name is Hope." "I know that sounds a little crazy," the breathy voice continues, grinding out the words. "That something so destructive could be labeled with such a peaceful name." It's the aural equivalent of watching the gears of a machine rotate under a surface of what looks like human skin.

A new plan by Amazon to use artificial intelligence (AI) to dub films could spell the end for voiceover actors. The technology giant has patented a system that would see computers learn the voices of Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise by studying their films. Amazon's computer systems could then automatically generate foreign language versions without any need for voiceover actors to dub the audio. The company used the example of "The Last Samurai" as an example use of the technology in its patent filing. By analysing how Cruise sounds in other films such as "Mission Impossible" and "Rain Man," Amazon could recreate his lines from "The Last Samurai" in French or Polish while still sounding recognisable.

You might not know her name, but you would probably recognise her voice because it speaks to millions of people every day. Reacting to the launch of the latest'NoPhone' - a phone replacement made of nothing but air- the lady behind the voice of Siri said she thinks people need to start putting down their phones. Susan Bennett, the voiceover actor responsible for the female voice of Siri, says'Everybody is running around taking 15 million pictures of their own face'. She said this is making their minds wander and they cannot relate to other humans. In a study published in June, mobile research firm dscout found the average person swipes, taps and pinches their display about 2,617 times a day, for a grand total of one million times per year.