Polish Radio Station Abandons AI Presenters Amid Public Backlash

Radio station drops "Gen Z" AI presenters after a week following public outrage

Facepalm: In yet another example of how most people don't want AI replacing humans - no matter how much executives say it saves money - a Polish radio station has abandoned an experiment where its journalists were dismissed and replaced with AI "presenters." The test was supposed to last three months, but the station decided to end it after just a week following a massive backlash from the public. On October 21, Radio Krakow announced that it was revamping its OFF station, introducing three AI-created voice hosts representing Generation Z. These avatars were 20-year-old journalism student and pop culture expert Emilia Nowa, 22-year-old Acoustic Engineering student Jakub Zielinski, and 23-year-old former psychology student Alex, who is "socially engaged, passionately discussing topics related to identity [and] queer culture." Response to the move was about as vitriolic as one would expect. Exacerbating the anger was the fact that Radio Kraków's human hosts were no longer at the station because they were "external collaborators" who had not had their contracts renewed, and "not because of AI," claimed editor-in-chief Marcin Pulit. In an Amazon-level move of PR brilliance, the radio decided that the first thing the AIs should do is interview Wislawa Szymborska, the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet and writer who died in 2012. This was, of course, another AI recreation, leading to even more outrage. Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who hosted a show on the station before the Gen Z robots arrived, launched a petition calling for the experiment to end and published an open letter that blasted "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." More than 23,000 people signed the petition. On Monday, Pulit revealed that the experiment using AI presenters was ending. He claimed its aim was to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and in that respect, it had been a success. It's an interesting way of spinning things, especially as the experiment was meant to last three months. "After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions, and conclusions that we decided that its continuation was pointless," Pulit wrote. He did admit that the level of anger toward the AI presenters and the ghoulish artificial reanimation of the dead was a shock. He said the station was "surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments formulated on the basis of false reports." The cancellation's timing was probably a good thing: the radio had planned an interview with Jozef Pilsudski, a Polish statesman who died in 1935. In June last year, KBFF (Live 95.5) introduced AI Ashley, making it the world's first radio station with an AI DJ, according to the company. The presenter is a cloned, AI version of midday host Ashley Elzinga, powered by Futuri Media's RadioGPT. AI Ashley is still on the air, filling in for the real Ashley Z when she takes a vacation.

Polish radio station abandons use of AI 'presenters' following outcry

A Polish radio station said Monday that it has ended an "experiment" that involved using AI-generated "presenters" instead of real journalists after the move sparked an outcry. Weeks after dismissing its journalists, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched last week using virtual characters created by AI as its presenters. Across Poland, people were angry, expressing fears that humans were being replaced by AI. The station's editor, Marcin Pulit, said in a statement Monday that the aim had been to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and that it had succeeded. He said the experiment had been meant to last three months but that it saw no reason to go on. "After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions, and conclusions that we decided that its continuation was pointless," Pulit wrote. He said the station was "surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments formulated on the basis of false reports." The station in the southern city of Krakow had said its avatars were designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. The change last week got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, launched a petition calling for the station to end the experiment and published an open letter protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 23,000 signed the petition. Last Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Before canceling the experiment, the station had been planning an interview with Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, who died in 1935. © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Polish radio station abandons use of AI 'presenters' following outcry

WARSAW, Poland -- A Polish radio station said Monday that it has ended an "experiment" that involved using AI-generated "presenters" instead of real journalists after the move sparked an outcry. Weeks after dismissing its journalists, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched last week using virtual characters created by AI as its presenters. Across Poland, people were angry, expressing fears that humans were being replaced by AI. The station's editor, Marcin Pulit, said in a statement Monday that the aim had been to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and that it had succeeded. He said the experiment had been meant to last three months but that it saw no reason to go on. "After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions, and conclusions that we decided that its continuation was pointless," Pulit wrote. He said the station was "surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments formulated on the basis of false reports." The station in the southern city of Krakow had said its avatars were designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. The change last week got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, launched a petition calling for the station to end the experiment and published an open letter protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 23,000 signed the petition. Last Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Before canceling the experiment, the station had been planning an interview with Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, who died in 1935.

Polish radio station abandons use of AI 'presenters' following outcry

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A Polish radio station said Monday that it has ended an "experiment" that involved using AI-generated "presenters" instead of real journalists after the move sparked an outcry. Weeks after dismissing its journalists, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched last week using virtual characters created by AI as its presenters. Across Poland, people were angry, expressing fears that humans were being replaced by AI. The station's editor, Marcin Pulit, said in a statement Monday that the aim had been to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and that it had succeeded. He said the experiment had been meant to last three months but that it saw no reason to go on. "After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions, and conclusions that we decided that its continuation was pointless," Pulit wrote. He said the station was "surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments formulated on the basis of false reports." The station in the southern city of Krakow had said its avatars were designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. The change last week got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, launched a petition calling for the station to end the experiment and published an open letter protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 23,000 signed the petition. Last Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Before canceling the experiment, the station had been planning an interview with Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, who died in 1935.

Polish Radio Station Abandons Use of AI 'Presenters' Following Outcry

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A Polish radio station said Monday that it has ended an "experiment" that involved using AI-generated "presenters" instead of real journalists after the move sparked an outcry. Weeks after dismissing its journalists, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched last week using virtual characters created by AI as its presenters. Across Poland, people were angry, expressing fears that humans were being replaced by AI. The station's editor, Marcin Pulit, said in a statement Monday that the aim had been to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and that it had succeeded. He said the experiment had been meant to last three months but that it saw no reason to go on. "After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions, and conclusions that we decided that its continuation was pointless," Pulit wrote. He said the station was "surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments formulated on the basis of false reports." The station in the southern city of Krakow had said its avatars were designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. The change last week got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, launched a petition calling for the station to end the experiment and published an open letter protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 23,000 signed the petition. Last Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Before canceling the experiment, the station had been planning an interview with Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, who died in 1935. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Polish radio station replaces fired journalists with AI 'presenters'

The radio station in Krakow called it "the first experiment in Poland" to use AI-generated presenters instead of human journalists. A radio station in Poland has triggered controversy after dismissing its journalists and relaunching this week with artificially intelligence (AI) "presenters". Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was "the first experiment in Poland in which journalists... are virtual characters created by AI". The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art, and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio, and journalism? We will seek answers to this question," the station head, Marcin Pulit, wrote in a statement. The change got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, published an open letter on Tuesday protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence". "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines". More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said he has also gotten calls from hundreds of people, many of them young people who do not want to be the subject of such an experiment. Demski worked at OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying out interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, when he was among about a dozen journalists who were let go. He said the move was especially shocking because the broadcaster is a taxpayer-supported public station. Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership "was close to zero". Krzysztof Gawkowski, the minister of digital affairs and a deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski's appeal and that legislation is needed to regulate AI. "Although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote on X. "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!" On Tuesday, the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Michał Rusinek, the president of the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, which oversees the poet's legacy, told the broadcaster TVN that he agreed to let the station use Szymborska's name in the broadcast. He said the poet had a sense of humour and would have liked it.

Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI 'presenters'

A Polish radio station has triggered controversy after dismissing its journalists and relaunching this week with AI-generated "presenters." Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was "the first experiment in Poland in which journalists ... are virtual characters created by AI." The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio and journalism? We will seek answers to this question," the station head, Marcin Pulit, wrote in a statement. The change got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, published an open letter Tuesday protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said he has also gotten calls from hundreds of people, many of them young people who do not want to be the subject of such an experiment. Demski worked at OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying out interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, when he was among about a dozen journalists who were let go. He said the move was especially shocking because the broadcaster is a taxpayer-supported public station. Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership "was close to zero." Krzysztof Gawkowski, the minister of digital affairs and a deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski's appeal and that legislation is needed to regulate AI. "Although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote on X. "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!" On Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Michał Rusinek, the president of the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, which oversees the poet's legacy, told the broadcaster TVN that he agreed to let the station use Szymborska's name in the broadcast. He said the poet had a sense of humor and would have liked it. © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI 'presenters'

WARSAW, Poland -- A Polish radio station has triggered controversy after dismissing its journalists and relaunching this week with AI-generated "presenters." Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was "the first experiment in Poland in which journalists ... are virtual characters created by AI." The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio and journalism? We will seek answers to this question," the station head, Marcin Pulit, wrote in a statement. The change got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, published an open letter Tuesday protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said he has also gotten calls from hundreds of people, many of them young people who do not want to be the subject of such an experiment. Demski worked at OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying out interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, when he was among about a dozen journalists who were let go. He said the move was especially shocking because the broadcaster is a taxpayer-supported public station. Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership "was close to zero." On Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Krzysztof Gawkowski, the minister of digital affairs and a deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski's story and that legislation is needed to regulate AI. "Although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote on X. "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!"

Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI 'presenters'

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A Polish radio station has triggered controversy after dismissing its journalists and relaunching this week with AI-generated "presenters." Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was "the first experiment in Poland in which journalists ... are virtual characters created by AI." The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio and journalism? We will seek answers to this question," the station head, Marcin Pulit, wrote in a statement. The change got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, published an open letter Tuesday protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said he has also gotten calls from hundreds of people, many of them young people who do not want to be the subject of such an experiment. Demski worked at OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying out interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, when he was among about a dozen journalists who were let go. He said the move was especially shocking because the broadcaster is a taxpayer-supported public station. Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership "was close to zero." On Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Krzysztof Gawkowski, the minister of digital affairs and a deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski's story and that legislation is needed to regulate AI. "Although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote on X. "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!"

Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI 'presenters'

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A Polish radio station has triggered controversy after dismissing its journalists and relaunching this week with AI-generated "presenters." Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was "the first experiment in Poland in which journalists ... are virtual characters created by AI." The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio and journalism? We will seek answers to this question," the station head, Marcin Pulit, wrote in a statement. The change got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, published an open letter Tuesday protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said he has also gotten calls from hundreds of people, many of them young people who do not want to be the subject of such an experiment. Demski worked at OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying out interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, when he was among about a dozen journalists who were let go. He said the move was especially shocking because the broadcaster is a taxpayer-supported public station. Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership "was close to zero." On Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Krzysztof Gawkowski, the minister of digital affairs and a deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski's story and that legislation is needed to regulate AI. "Although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote on X. "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!"

Polish radio station's move to replace journalists with AI bots sparks backlash

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A Polish radio station that replaced its human journalists with a trio of artificial intelligence-generated avatars to compile the news has sparked a backlash from reporters and skepticism from the government. Calling it an "experiment" on "the opportunities and threats that the development of artificial intelligence bring," the online station OFF Radio Krakow on Monday rolled out a new format in which three virtual hosts, created using AI technology, deliver news content prepared by "real journalists who use artificial intelligence tools" to generate the text. The AI avatars each host a two-hour show on weekdays, according to Marcin Pulit, the station's editor-in-chief. "The project is time-limited," he said. "We assume that it will last no longer than 3 months and will be evaluated." Despite assurances the use of AI-generated journalists is merely a temporary experiment, alarms were set off across the country. Mateusz Demski, a former live host at OFF Radio Krakow who insists real journalists were laid off by the station in order to automate the news, led an effort to bring the incident to the attention of the public and the government. Demski said Thursday a petition he composed, addressed to fellow journalists and Polish government officials demanding an explanation of the move, had been delivered to the Ministry of Culture with 19,000 signatures. Nowhere in Pulit's announcement does he mention "that several people had lost their jobs shortly before," the petition states. A letter similarly demanding information on the AI hosts signed by former journalists at OFF Radio Krakow was sent to Polish Culture Minister Hanna Wróblewska, Demski said in a Facebook post. The controversy was also joined by Deputy Polish Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who serves as the country's minister of digital affairs. He voiced skepticism about the station's move in a social media post on Wednesday. "I read Mateusz Demski's story about the replacement of journalists by artificial intelligence at OFF Radio Krakow and although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote, adding, "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!" Pulit denied that live journalists were laid off to make way for the AI bots. He told the Polish business news website Money.pl that "no OFF Radio Krakow employee was dismissed" -- rather, freelancers who were supplying a limited amount of original content to a station that mainly played automated music had contracts that were allowed to lapse. "The listenership range of OFF Radio Krakow was close to zero," Pulit said, adding that its programming overlapped with its parent station, Radio Krakow, and another digital channel. "This was the basis for the decision to make the change," he said.

Polish Radio Station Replaces Journalists With AI 'Presenters'

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A Polish radio station has triggered controversy after dismissing its journalists and relaunching this week with AI-generated "presenters." Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was "the first experiment in Poland in which journalists ... are virtual characters created by AI." The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultural, art and social issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio and journalism? We will seek answers to this question," the station head, Marcin Pulit, wrote in a statement. The change got nationwide attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a show on the station, published an open letter Tuesday protesting "the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence." "It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," he wrote, and argued it could open the way "to a world in which experienced employees associated with the media sector for years and people employed in creative industries will be replaced by machines." More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said he has also gotten calls from hundreds of people, many of them young people who do not want to be the subject of such an experiment. Demski worked at OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying out interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, when he was among about a dozen journalists who were let go. He said the move was especially shocking because the broadcaster is a taxpayer-supported public station. Pulit insisted that no journalists were fired because of AI but because its listenership "was close to zero." On Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. Krzysztof Gawkowski, the minister of digital affairs and a deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski's story and that legislation is needed to regulate AI. "Although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote on X. "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!" Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Radio station in Poland courts controversy with AI hosts

Station claims its visionary, ex-employees claim it cynical; reality appears way more fiscal A Polish radio station has ditched its on-air talent for AI in what its editor-in-chief calls an experiment on the effect of AI in society, though it looks like like a bid to save cash. OFF Radio Krakow, an online and DAB+ subsidiary of the larger Radio Krakow station, announced this week that it was going all-in on AI, with new shows hosted by a trio of gen-Z AI talking heads, "Emi," "Kuba" and "Alex," all with their own biographies and personalities "created by journalists," according to the station. Stop us if this idea sounds familiar: "The content they [the AI hosts] deliver is prepared by real journalists who use artificial intelligence tools for this purpose," OFF editor-in-chief Marcin Pulit wrote in the announcement. "After the text is generated, it is checked and verified by journalists and then processed into sound." The same goes for written stories on the site, Pulit said, and even musical selections the AI hosts will play during their once a week "authorial" music broadcast. One of the first items published on the site created entirely by AI was an interview with deceased Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska and Emi about this year's Nobel Prize in literature. Unlike in previous cases, this use of a famous dead person's likeness was at least done with consent. The decision to turn OFF Radio Krakow into an all-AI wasteland aimed at Gen-Z Poles comes after the station fired a bunch of on-air talent, one of the jilted former broadcasters said in a petition he filed to force the station to stop its AI experiment. In the petition, which as of writing has over 20,000 signatures, Mateusz Demski said that "a dozen or so people" working at OFF Radio Krakow lost their jobs, as the studio suddenly pivoted to an AI-centered platform. Demski blamed Pulit for the decision, saying that the decision is yet another case, as exemplified in Hollywood strikes, that creative industries are still under threat from AI. "This 'experiment' is a blow not only to OFF journalists, but to our entire community," Demski said. "The case of OFF Radio Krakow is an important reminder for the entire industry." Pulit, meanwhile, said that none of the people fired were eliminated because of AI. "These were guest collaborators who made programs for us once a week," the Polish edition of Business Insider quoted Pulit as saying. "The contracts expired not because artificial intelligence was introduced, but because this formula does not work." The actual reason, he wrote in the announcement, was to engage in the question of what AI brings to society - both for good and bad. "We want to consider what effects the development of artificial intelligence may have on culture, media, journalism, society," Pulit wrote. "Is artificial intelligence more of an opportunity or a threat to media, radio and journalism? We will seek answers to this question." Polish media is undergoing a transformation right now, and that may have more to do with this situation than anything else at the moment. When current Prime Minister Donald Tusk came to power late last year, one of his promises was to depoliticize the public news service in Poland, which the former right-wing government had used extensively to push state propaganda, the new government alleged. As such, 17 different regional public radio stations - Radio Krakow among them - were placed into liquidation and forced to restructure. Pulit, now EIC of OFF Radio Krakow, is also the appointed liquidator for the broader Radio Krakow group, and he's been sounding the alarm about the station's finances for a while. Pulit told Polish media earlier this year that Radio Krakow was in such dire straits that he wasn't sure the station was going to be able to pay its employees. In the same interview, however, he said he didn't plan to lay anyone off. "This mission program has to be done by someone, so I do not foresee looking for savings on people," Pulit told Polish outlet Onet. Contributors aren't really employees, naturally, so Pulit apparently didn't see any issue with eliminating them in favor of some hip new digital hosts. But they're just temps, too, really - OFF Radio Krakow doesn't intend to keep broadcasting this way. "The project is time-limited," Pulit noted. "We assume that it will last no longer than 3 months and will be evaluated." Sorry, Emi, Kuba, and Alex - they don't seem to care much about your future, either. ®

Radio station uses AI to interview the ghost of a dead Nobel-winner with 3 quirky zoomers who don't exist, seems baffled people don't like it

Ask yourself this: What could be dodgier than a radio station giving its human hosts the boot and replacing them with a cohort of three alarmingly photogenic Gen-Z AIs? If you answered 'having those three zoomer AIs interview another AI, this one imitating a Nobel prize-winning writer who died 12 years ago,' then congratulations, you may have a future ahead of you at Polish station Radio Kraków, which is in hot water for doing just that (via Onet.pl). On Monday, Radio Kraków announced that it was overhauling its OFF station. Since 2015, the station had broadcast (all following quotes are machine-translated) "a playlist as well as original music programmes and a two-hour morning programme, in which the most time was devoted to cultural and social events in Kraków with the participation of Kraków artists and people associated with the Kraków club scene." But it's 2024 and, apparently, that doesn't bring in the ears these days. In its place, declared the station, listeners would henceforth hear "the AI-created voices of three hosts -- model representatives of Generation Z." These would be 20-year-old Emilia Nowa, "a journalism student [and] pop culture expert," who is "passionately following the latest trends in the world of cinema, music and fashion"; 22-year-old Jakub Zieliński, who's studying Acoustic Engineering at AGH (a Kraków university); and rounding out the three was 23-year-old Alex, a former psychology student who is "socially engaged, passionately discussing topics related to identity [and] queer culture." Except none of those people, their degrees, their disturbingly captivating AI-made portraits, or their interests were actually real, of course, because they were all robots. The reaction from listeners was immediate and acrid. On the Facebook post announcing OFF radio's new direction, former fans left comments like "I wish you exactly the same -- exclusively AI as listeners," and "It seems that the easiest person to replace is the manager who came up with it." OFF radio's former human staff were none too pleased, either. In a separate Facebook post (via Notes From Poland), ex-OFF host Mateusz Demski lambasted Radio Kraków editor-in-chief Marcin Pulit for failing to note -- in the AI show's glamorous announcement -- that "a dozen or so people had lost their jobs just a moment earlier." Continuing, Demski writes that "This gentleman [Pulit] had the audacity to boast about his many years of journalistic experience. For me, in my opinion, this man has nothing to do with journalism." For his part, Pulit answered complaints about human job losses by claiming that "no employee of Radio Kraków was fired." Rather, OFF hosts were "external collaborators" whose contracts were terminated, and "not because of AI." Pulit said that a lot of OFF radio's content overlapped with programmes on other Radio Kraków stations, and that "the listenership range of OFF Radio Kraków was close to zero. This was the basis for the decision to make the change." Demski then implored readers to sign a petition protesting the shift to AI and the threat it poses to journalism, which he had set up "a little in helplessness, a little in anger." It has received 16,000 signatures at the time of writing. But wait, it gets worse. Like I said, the Gen-Z AI trio's gala debut consisted of an interview with none other than Wisława Szymborska, a world-renowned Polish poet and writer who won the 1996 Nobel prize in literature for, ironically enough, "poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality." The problem with that, of course, is that Szymborska has been dead for 12 years -- she died of lung cancer in 2012. The subject that Emilia, Jakub, and Alex interview was, herself, and AI construct proffering opinions on all manner of things, including "Korean literature and this year's Nobel Laureate Han Kang." You can hear the interview as it aired in this Instagram post. You can find a (again, machine-translated) transcript of the chat here, including Szymborska enthusing about Pedro Pascal endorsing the work of Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk on Instagram a few weeks ago. The reaction was pretty much as you'd expect. "After firing employees, you could at least retain a minimum of dignity" wrote one Polish listener on Facebook. "We are witnessing a historical self-immolation," wrote another. "I wish from the bottom of my heart many lost lawsuits, massive financial penalties and a clumsy bankruptcy," judged another. And, if you couldn't tell, I can't help but share the sentiment. Deploying a gaggle of AI simulacra and hoping they capture the voice of Gen Z is not journalism, and getting them to tackle topics as sensitive and fraught as, for instance, "queer culture" seems like both inviting catastrophe and disrespecting the actual human beings to whom these subjects truly matter. That's to say nothing of thoughtlessly tampering with the memories of the dead with the AI resurrection of figures like Szymborska. Many have asked, but I could not find an answer from the station as to whether it secured the permission of Szymborska's heirs before pulling its stunt. Will it continue? The executive class has never been one to let a labour-saving technology slip through its fingers, but the response to this one has been disastrous. As far as Radio Kraków's editor-in-chief is concerned, though, "We are testing the possibilities and limitations of this technology at the current stage of its development."