US First Lady Melania Trump has unveiled a new audiobook, though it is not her actual voice delivering the narration. Instead, the First Lady leveraged artificial intelligence to generate a vocal rendition of herself to recount her story.
The seven-hour production is priced at $25 and was announced by Melania via social media. She characterized it as “my story, my perspective, the truth,” and stated that it was entirely narrated by AI designed to replicate her voice. This audiobook release follows her prior warnings regarding the perils of “deepfakes,” a technology that employs AI to fabricate convincing false videos or audio recordings.
The 55-year-old spouse of President Donald Trump publicly announced the release of the seven-hour recording on Thursday. “My story, my perspective, the truth,” a voice with the distinct accent of the Slovenian-born former model intones, accompanied by a brief black and white video featuring computer-generated graphics of her face. It remains unclear whether the voice in the video belongs to Melania herself or her AI counterpart.
In the same post, she subsequently wrote: “I am honoured to bring you Melania – The AI Audiobook – narrated entirely using artificial intelligence in my own voice. Let the future of publishing begin.”
The audiobook’s official website asserts that the “AI-generated replica” of Melania Trump’s voice was “created under Mrs Trump’s direction and supervision.” It also added that “multiple” foreign language versions are expected to be available later this year.
Melania Trump had previously launched the physical edition of her memoir in October to considerable fanfare, including a signed collector’s edition printed on “premium art paper” priced at $150.
The launch of the AI-narrated audiobook occurs just days after she joined President Trump in signing legislation that criminalizes the posting of “revenge porn” at a federal level, regardless of whether the content is genuine or AI-generated. In March, during her first solo public engagement since her husband’s return to power, Melania Trump had advocated for the “Take It Down Act,” speaking out against “malicious online content, like deepfakes.”
The First Lady has largely maintained a private profile at the White House since her husband’s inauguration on January 20, spending limited time in Washington alongside her billionaire husband. However, this has not prevented her from undertaking a select number of projects that carefully manage her public image while also generating revenue. In addition to the AI audiobook, Melania is reportedly filming a documentary series with Amazon, under a contract said to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
