Michael Caine’s new audiobook is everything that’s wrong with Hollywood

‘Michael Caine’s AI-generated voice to narrate The Odyssey audiobook’: I have never read a more cursed sentence in my life.

There’s no doubt been a big, uncomfortable push by Hollywood to promote AI in recent months. Among the naysayers like director Guillermo del Toro and stars such as Emily Blunt, there’s also been a wave of AI approval.

There’s a rot at the core of Tinseltown, where some are trying to normalise the encroachment of AI in the art we consume. From late actors’ voices and likeness being used in movies to stars like Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon declaring it is here to stay.

I don’t care if the pay cheque is big or if these A-listers simply have a seriously disturbed worldview; allowing a machine to speak for the human experience is the end of art itself.

So when I heard the Odyssey was being made into a 13-hour AI audiobook, my stomach dropped.

As one of the most enduring tales in literary history, passed down orally from the age of Homer from around the 8th century BC, this epic poem has been a veritable playground for the imagination.

From ancient times, when this story of grief, trickery and homecoming was sung by bards far and wide, the fluidity and ever-evolving nature of it has reflected the tumultuous and far-flung journey our hero Odysseus goes on in this story.

There’s witchcraft, meddling gods, fantastical and fearsome creatures, surreal trials and tribulations like tricking a cyclops into thinking your name is Nobody or your fleet of men being turned into pigs.

Over the millennia, The Odyssey and Homer’s other epic, The Iliad, have been woven into the fabric of literature from the tragedies of Euripides and Virgil’s own epic, the Aeneid, through to James Joyce’s seminal Ulysses.

But beyond that, in pop culture, whether through its countless references in The Simpsons or the source of inspiration for bestselling books like the Percy Jackson series, it proves its worth far beyond an outdated ancient text.

Even direct tellings of this tale, such as translations like Emily Wilson’s groundbreaking 2017 release or screen adaptations such as Ralph Fiennes The Return (based on the final books), have offered fresh and new perspectives all these years later.

It has re-entered the zeitgeist in a big way since Christopher Nolan announced his adaptation starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Ny’ongo and countless other major stars.

Despite the backlash, with many already sceptical of Christopher’s 21st-century vision, I have remained open-minded. The beauty of The Odyssey is all the new ways it can be re-imagined and explored with its wealth of characters, adventures, stories and themes.

But all of that goodwill has come to a screeching halt with the news of this companion AI audiobook that the company ElevenLabs is releasing to serve as a complement to the theatrical release.

Helmed by a replica voice of acting legend Michael, alongside 20 characters also cast from its voice library, head of partnerships, Dustin Blank, has claimed it ‘does justice’ to this story.

Caine has happily co-signed the project with a patronising pitch reading: ‘By bridging classical storytelling with digital innovation, this timeless epic is reimagined for modern audiences, brought vividly to life through ElevenReader’s cutting-edge technology.’

From its rich origins as an oral tale imbued with pathos that resonated with a civilisation and has since echoed through the generations, the concept of a soulless imitiation taking ownership of this epic feels like a slap in the face.

An utter bastardisation of what storytelling is, and has always been about: humanity.

I am utterly uninterested in an AI version of Michael Caine lecturing me about Odysseus’ flawed nature: wily, arrogant, loyal and lost. At once desperate to return home, yet pulled to the call of the sea.

It will be devoid of unexpected choices that AI cannot comprehend, where the wrong note works without rhyme or reason.

Moreso, artists pour themselves and the lives they’ve lived (whether intentional or not) into their performances – it is the very condition of being alive.

I have no doubt this move has Homer (whoever and however many people that may be) rolling in their grave.

With The Odyssey set to not only be the biggest cinematic release of the year but perhaps even this decade so far, to have it associated with an AI project is the most alarming sign yet that we’re careening down an irreversible path.

At 93 years old, Caine has reaped the rewards of a thriving artistic career during a century filled with unimaginable technological progress, but in his final projects, he’s pulling the ladder up and leaving the next generation’s Michael Caine in the dust.

I know I’ll be forgoing this audiobook for a human-made creation, and I would urge others to do the same.