Let me start by saying that nothing you see written or researched here is AI-assisted. However, due to a very tight budget I have in the past used AI voices for discussion podcasts and audio. The podcasts are conceived as supporting summaries for students and fellow obsessives, and are more conversational and informal in tone. I write the scripts and a neural text-to-speech voice generates a podcast-style listen. I use Audacity to overlay the narration with ambient sounds and music (this is achieved manually by multi-tracking).

As a result of ongoing concerns about AI, I have suspended all use of it in podcast summaries.

I strongly believe that the actual content of work — the moral and philosophical bones of it — should remain human.

Images

I have experimented with Google Storybook for cartoon illustrations on two or three narrative non-fiction stories (I don’t intend to use them again).

95% of graphics are either my own work (using Photoshop layers) or stock and public domain images.

Where images are very poor I have occasionally used AI to restore them. The success of Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old has proved that technology can enhance our experience of the past, and help us connect more emotionally with history. If AI can support that experience, I am happy to use it sparingly.