I don’t really understand why obviously useless people like “newsreaders” and “presenters” are surprised that they’re eventually going to be replaced by AI. I mean, they were expensive and they never actually did anything that required any thought whatsoever anyhow.
OFF Radio Krakow in Poland has sparked outrage after firing several presenters and replacing them with artificial intelligence (AI) programmed to interview high-profile dead people using AI-generated responses.
On Oct. 22, OFF Radio Krakow launched its radical initiative featuring a simulated interview with the late poet Wieslawa Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. The AI-hosted segment employed a computer-generated voice designed to mimic Szymborska’s tone as she “discussed” this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature following approval from the poet’s foundation.
The foundation believes the innovative presentation could help introduce the works of Szymborska to new audiences, but the response from the public and media has been largely critical. Fans and cultural advocates argue that the use of AI to impersonate deceased individuals crosses an ethical line and threatens the integrity of journalism.
Especially since so much news is taken directly from the Associated Press, it should be trivial for the average television station to replace all of its “newsreaders” and “anchors” with a quality AI system, which will also save a considerable amount of money on salaries for people who have little to offer except mellifluous voices and good hair.
In fact, this is obviously the way that UATV News is eventually going to go; we’ve already done a few modest experiments in that vein. But animation obviously isn’t the way to do it, because there is too much animation and artwork involved. It has to be something that looks like a real human newsreader and there are already some decent AI services that deliver that. If there is any interest in supporting a project like this, let us know in the comments.
