What is a verb that means "to be said by a computer/machine"?
Solution 1:
If you are looking for a single word, verbalize works: -
Verbalize
- To express in words: He couldn't verbalize his feelings.
Dictionary.com
The computer will verbalize whatever text you typed (out loud).
There is a conflict of tense in the example sentence, I would rewrite it like the example that follows. As we are using verbalize, "(out loud)" is redundant I would say as common usage of the word relates to the spoken word.
The computer will verbalize whatever text you type.
Literally however, the definition can be used in non spoken context, as the Google definition implies: -
1. express (ideas or feelings) in words, especially by speaking out loud. "they are unable to verbalize their real feelings"
2. speak, especially at length and with little real content. "the dangers of verbalizing about art"
Google Dictionary
If you wanted to draw attention to the fact the computer is speaking "out loud" I would move this closer to the verb, and use aloud instead, like this: -
The computer will verbalize aloud whatever text you type.
Solution 2:
As Oerkelens said, the sentence "The computer will read out loud whatever text you typed" is fine.
The verb "synthesize" is the word I encounter most frequently in a technical context. That is the term used by developers of text-to-speech software and screen readers. Here are a few examples (emphasis added):
- "The service synthesizes natural-sounding speech from input text in a variety of languages and voices that speak with appropriate cadence and intonation." (IBM: Watson Developer Cloud: Text to Speech)
- "Unlike Festival its start up time is very short (less that 25ms on a PIII 500MHz) making it practical (on larger machines) to call it each time you need to synthesize something." (Flite: a small, fast speech synthesis engine: System documentation)
- "Like with the audio element, the playback of synthesized spech can be controlled with a playback UI, or by scripting. The text to synthesize can be specified in plain text, or in SSML." (HTML Text to Speech (TTS) API Specification - draf specification)
- "Normally this variable contains a list of two function, utt.synth and utt.play which will synthesize and play the resulting waveform. In this case, instead, we wish to predict the part of speech value, and then print it out." and "You can construct multi-part songs by synthesizing each part and generating waveforms, them combining them." (The Festival Speech Synthesis System: System Documentation)
- "It contains no digital signal processing chip, but synthesizes words in real time in an 8-MHz NEC V20 microprocessor." (Text-To-Speech)
Verbalize is also used. For example (emphasis added):
- "Presently, screen readers are able to verbalize on-screen text using text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis." (Sonically-Enhanced Tabular Screen-Reading)
- "For example, though portable e–book readers can easily be built with the capability to verbalize the text of the e–books, they often are not." (Retrofitting accessibility: The legal inequality of after-the-fact online access for persons with disabilities in the United States)
Solution 3:
I would probably go with vocalize:
1: to give voice to: utter; specifically: sing
2a: to make voiced rather than voiceless: voice
(Merriam-Webster)
As in Gary's answer, verbalize could work just fine, but I feel vocalize has a bit more of an "audible" feel to it. At least for me.
The computer will vocalize whatever text you typed.
In this case, you wouldn't even need the parenthesized (out loud) to denote an audible reading of the text.
Solution 4:
I'm surprised no one else has written this in an answer, but it seems not. Surely it's:
speak
as in
The computer will speak whatever text you typed
You say:
"Say" sounds too casual and it doesn't seem "computer-y". I want to emphasise that a computer is generating the speech. Does such a word exist?
'Speak' is less casual than 'say', and it is obvious the computer is generating the speech from the preceding three words 'The computer will speak'. I don't see why it needs to be "computer-y".
Solution 5:
Computers typically perform input/output operations, with the user providing input and the computer providing output. In your case, I would say something like:
The app will produce audio output of whatever you typed.