TTS with coqui xTTS is fun to run with a known voice (10sec wav file is enought). It requires some resources but far less than STT like faster-whisper. I think the main issue is not running them but integrate them with the OS/softwares.
It sounds like an intro to a new science fiction scenario but it is real.
A not technical book about programming I would suggest: https://themediocreprogrammer.com/what-is-the-mediocre-programmer.html#what-is-the-mediocre-programmer
Many of us have this kind of feeling. That's why there are: Small web, inidie web, Gemini... Without being extremist with noJS websites (even if it's not a bad idea), let's create content outside platforms. I hope a day blogs will come back and RSS reader became back a trend. So we'll take back control of a (small) part of the Internet.
A bit paradoxal but it looks that all central platform (twitter, reddit, facebook...) are helping the spread of Fediverse. Recently we saw the impact with Twitter on Mastodon, myself I've discovered Lemmy even if I wasn't a reddit user. And before that Facebook first spread friendica and diaspora. It looks next step will be around Youtube where Google try to lock more and more its user.