Did anyone else listen to the audio version of this article? Is it a really good text-to-speech engine reading it, or is it a real person? I feel a little bad asking because I'm probably insulting a real VO artist by asking.

The reasons I suspect that it's a machine are:

1. The voice sounds really familiar.

2. The person (or machine, but henceforth I'll just say person) read the names of the authors but never gave his own name.

3. The person had unusually long but consistent pauses between sentences.

4. The person read a few clauses strangely in a way that I don't think a real person, or at least a native English speaker, would have. The clauses were a little strangely worded, but the intent becomes clear as soon as you read the whole sentence. So although it's not impossible that a real person and native speaker would have gotten it wrong, they would have immediately reread the sentence with the correct inflection.

5. I can't imagine a real person reading such an emotional piece in such an unaffected manner.

All that said, if it is text-to-speech, it's the best I've ever heard. But you can see how I feel bad about saying all this. It implies this is either a fantastic text-to-speech program or a questionable VO artist. If this was a real person and that person is reading this, I apologize. I mean no disrespect.