Deus Ex Machina

Well, it didn't take long for the future to arrive. We've been talking about artificial intelligence for a while, but it was just a few weeks ago that we got around to talking about its application to the radio business, imagining that something like ChatGPT would be used to generate virtual radio hosts reading scripts the bot scraped from random internet sources. And here we are, with the news that there's a platform in beta that uses a GPT engine to create scripts from the news and, combined with an AI-generated voice, means that stations can, in theory, eliminate the human element and use robojocks instead.

It was only a matter of time. Let's be honest: it's only a matter of time for most jobs. It's the way things are going, and while it would be nice if those pushing the world in that direction would slow down and consider the moral and ethical implications of handing things over to our new virtual overlords, that's not happening. Replacing human radio hosts with computer-generated hosts is pretty low on the ranker of pressing issues -- gonna be a lot more worried when surgeons and heavy-machinery operators and military decision-makers are replaced by AI -- but it's your business, so it matters to you.

Several people who write about radio have already weighed in, sort of, on this. It's this week's topic, so I guess it's my turn. Herewith, some thoughts:

It doesn't speak well of the state of radio that AI can be this close to adequately replicating the programming generated by humans. The new platform creates scripts from the company's show prep source, which isn't a whole lot different from hosts who pretty much read what's on the show prep sheet in front of them. If the artificial voice gets inflections right, there's practically nothing different from what a human jock is doing. Generations of hosts lazily parroting prep sheets or ripping and reading from the news are why this is even possible. The computer is not yet able to replicate hosts who project real personality and have unique acts, but if you've been going through the motions, you're first on the list of replaceable parts.

That's not always the fault of the host. Radio management has been averse to trying different personality-driven programming for years. Music stations, especially in the PPM era, have been tied to the shut-up-and-play-the-music philosophy, deep into the age of music fans being able to easily get all the music they want elsewhere, on demand, on any device. Talk stations have stuck to the same-old for a few decades now. Sports stations are more difficult to imagine being replicated by machines, though if they can get ChatGPT to generate hot takes, there might be something to worry about. (An AI bot that can replace Stephen A. Smith or Skip Bayless would be... well, interesting would be one way to put it.)

And now, we have the dawning of the Age of the Robojock. A computer can do your job. As a writer, I can empathize; ChatGPT is far from ready for prime time for writing, making a lot of mistakes and currently capable mostly of generating terrible, falsity-ridden copy, but at some point, editors will decide that the cost savings outweigh the quality issue (it's already happening, it's not pretty, and it'll only become more common). The same will happen with radio.

What does this mean for you? Remember, this is entirely about money. It's about saving your salary, and your benefits, and that's it. It's not about making good radio, even if the platform they use can potentially do that. It's all about cost-cutting. They need you, but they want to save money more than they care about you.

How do you, as a radio host, protect yourself? You can develop your act to be unique, better, irreplaceable, I suppose, not that anyone will be considered irreplaceable. You could try reminding management that Ai can't do paid remotes, both because they're not actual humans and because they've probably been programmed to be averse to sitting under a canopy in a strip mall parking lot next to a truck selling 20 ribeyes for $40. (We can also assume that listeners will not respond to live read personal endorsements by hosts who don't actually exist, assuming, that is, that the listeners know that the host is an AI bot.)

We can also hope that management understands that the human element is essential to radio's continued relevance. No matter how good AI gets in doing radio, there are things humans do to connect and engage that a computer can't (yet) do. Humans also can react and show emotion and be flexible when news breaks. They can take phone calls (when they're not voice tracking). They can have opinions and express them well. They can be funny and perceptive rather than repurposing something someone else wrote. We're probably a good distance away from AI being able to do all that.

But there are probably good use cases for AI-generated radio, too. Honestly, if your station's already pretty much automated in some dayparts, is there that much of a difference between AI and whatever it is that you're doing? In fact, if, say, you're running voice tracks or no host at all in the evening or overnights, having an AI host reciting something timely it retrieved from a prep service or the wires, especially local content, isn't a bad idea. And AI can't be worse than some talk hosts I've heard (no names, sorry).

(Note to podcast hosts: You, too. Actually, it might be interesting to hear an AI-generated podcast. I wouldn't be surprised that some of the cookie-cutter snarking-about-pop-culture podcasts out there are in fact hosted by bots.)

The bottom line, though, is the bottom line, so you'll see more of this, and assuming it ever gets perfected, it'll be interesting to see whether listeners notice or care. The biggest question isn't if, it's when.

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No, I never considered letting ChatGPT write the column this week. Too hacky. Also, I'm worried that it would have done a better job than I did.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon
Mastodon @pmsimon@c.im