A U.S. radio station has become the first in the country's history to use an AI DJ for an entire shift. Using RadioGPT software developed by Futuri, Oregon's Live 95.5 created AI Ashley from the voice of human host Ashley Elzinga, with her consent.
The new AI experiments in radio are already dividing opinion. While some fear job cuts and not being paid fairly for the use of voices, others stress the advantages and the importance of broadcasters learning how to use the tool.
Broadcaster paid for the use of her voice on AI Ashley
Broadcaster Ashley Elzinga, owner of the voice used by AI Ashley, says her rights were clear when she agreed to participate in the project. Elzinga was paid for the use of her voice and AI companies have no ownership or free-use rights to any voice, she explained.
This means that even if they have already captured the speaker's voice to use Ashley's AI on other occasions, companies like Futuri need authorization for future uses, with payments for each project.
Futuri founder and CEO Dan Anstandig highlighted the usefulness of the technology at a time of layoffs and cutbacks in the industry. "We have fewer people at a time when there is more consumer appetite and I think AI can help us fill that gap," Anstandig said in an interview with ABC News.
But it is precisely this possibility of replacing the human professional that broadcasters are concerned about. RadioGPT uses the large GPT-4 linguistic model, created by OpenAI for the ChatGPT chatbot. According to Anstandig, the tool is capable of finding new stories, writing scripts and presenting radio programs with different artificially generated voices.
AI expansion worries radio broadcasters
Recently, a radio conference in Dallas (USA) brought together several radio professionals to discuss the use of AI in the field. Some of them were adamantly against it and highlighted the many fears they feel: "To pretend that AI is not going to mean a massive extinction of jobs in this country, whether in radio or anything else, is kidding yourself," said Shawn Tempesta, host of 102.7VGS in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jessica Bonilla, of Mix 105.1 in Orlando, harped on the fear of technology replacing human professionals. "Whenever companies can find a cheaper, faster way to get a job done, they embrace it," she said then.
However, as with all fields, not all broadcasters have a negative view of the future of AI in radio. In an interview with ABC News, Toby Knapp noted that AI already helps him a lot in his job at 97.1WASH-FM in Washington D.C. "As a music personality, I don't put CDs or vinyl in the queue...today's talent has to embrace what technology can do," he said. As he reveals on his blog, Knapp already uses ChatGPT to write news stories and prepare interviews.
When it comes to voice playback, however, Knapp stresses that there are human elements that AI would not be able to mimic. "You can't automate companionship. That's why I see it as an extension, a next step, an evolution of what we do. My message to any musical talent is: don't be afraid of it. Because only you can do what you do. And that's extremely important. You can't replace it. Can you clone it? Sure. Can this cloning help you in case of problems? We can discuss those options. But I don't think it's a complete substitution, and I don't think it's inherently bad," he said.
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