A Polish online radio station affiliated with the terrestrial radio station in Krakow is switching to an AI-powered model featuring three on-air personalities. The AI DJs include 20-year-old Eli Nowa, “journalism student, pop culture expert,” 22-year-old Kuba, a “technology and music specialist,” and “23-year-old, socially engaged Alex - touching topics related to queer identity and culture.” The agents will program the music for the station and interview celebrities and politicians.
I hate this and I love it at the same time.
First, a bit of context. The “station” in question is called Off Radio Krakow and for a long time it played techno programmed by human contractors who created playlists and commentary for what, according to the station, was a low-traffic stream.
From the Editor-in-Chief, Marcin Pulit:
The reason was not the introduction of artificial intelligence tools. After 9 years of existence, at the beginning of this year, an analysis of the listenability and substantive content of the program was made. Most of the OFF radio Kraków antenna program coincided with the second thematic channel Radio Kraków Kultura and the main antenna of Radio Kraków, and the listenability ranges of OFF Radio Kraków were close to zero. This was the basis for the decision to make a change.
Basically, nobody was listening anyway.
But Pulit claims that no journalists were harmed in the change, while another DJ, Mateusz Demski, said that a number of employees will be replaced with AI, leaving one DJ left to run the station via AI.
“The current music director of OFF Radio Krakow, Wojciech Barczyński, is still responsible for the musical setting (playlist), but now he also uses AI tools for music programming,” wrote Pulit.
First, if you’re in the creative industry, expect this to happen to you sooner than later. By giving AI the power to write and create for us, we’ve knocked ourselves out of the evolutionary tree. We’re done. Cooked. It’s over.
Second, this is where we’re all headed and we’d better get used to it. The biggest problem with this move, however, is the bald cynicism displayed by Pulit and the station. Their goal, ultimately, is to create a radio station for youths - 18 to 26, kids, who aren’t valuable enough to listeners to spend any money on their education or entertainment. Further, Pulit doesn’t think the station would survive anyway and this experiment is a chance to keep it running and probably to gain a little press.
“The idea of conducting a radio experiment using artificial intelligence tools during the transition period was born from this concern,” wrote Pulit. “This is part of our participation in the debate on the opportunities and threats posed by the development of AI. We well evaluate the experiment in three months.”
In fact, the AI will be offering “an original music program and an exclusive interview with prominent figures of Polish and world culture, politicians and activists.”
That’s right: AI will talk to humans. Folks aren’t happy with this, especially in a country that until recently pulled itself out of the Dark Ages regarding reproductive rights and LGBT rights.
“The AI is supposed to talk about culture and art, social issues, civil rights and the needs of queer people. About issues from the field of widely understood humanities - requiring particular sensitivity and sensitivity,” writes Demski.
Ultimately, this particular experiment will likely fail, as Pulit clearly states. Nobody wants to hear three robots talking about politics. The anima and intensity will be deeply underwhelming and the results poor to middling. That’s my hope, at least.
But again, this cynical move is only the first step in a long march to the replacement of journalists and broadcasters. It’s inevitable. I expect to see this happening in the US sooner than later and not on some zero-listener website. How easy is it to replace the Man Cow and the Doozer on drive time in the morning, especially when advertising for terrestrial radio is flat?
Another Polish journalist, Aleksy Uchanski, offers an interesting suggestion. He says maybe the turnabout is fair play.
“I would recommend another experiment in which I would leave all the protein-based journalists and tear out the entire management structure - to be replaced by AI,” he wrote.
We already listen to endless DJ-less radio. If you’re really upset about this, you can sign an online petition, but the die is cast. When is the last time an 18-year-old has listened to terrestrial radio, except when Mom turns on NPR? The medium is ripe for disruption.
I just doubt the journalists and DJs that will be laid off want to bear the brunt of progress.
Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash