\nRadio station gets part-time AI DJ based on its midday host<\/br>
\n2023-06-15 22:11:47<\/br><\/p>\n
Live 95.5, a radio station in Portland, Oregon, announced<\/a> Tuesday that its midday host Ashley Elzinga will broadcast a cloned version of her voice \u2014 aka \u201cAI Ashley\u201d \u2014 to listeners every day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. They\u2019ll be using Futuri Media\u2019s \u201cRadioGPT<\/a>,\u201d an AI-powered tool that uses GPT-4 to generate a script based on trending news and reads it with a synthetic voice.<\/p>\n The radio station noted that AI Ashley isn\u2019t fully replacing \u201ctraditional Ashley,\u201d which has been a huge concern for a lot of local DJs. Radio stations have cut down their broadcasts in recent years due to rising costs<\/a> or in a shift to embrace tech like AI. In 2020, iHeartMedia<\/a> restructured its organization, laid off hundreds of people nationwide<\/a> and invested in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Live 95.5\u2019s parent company, Alpha Media, assured us that Elzinga would not be losing her job and would still be paid the same salary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a hybrid situation where we\u2019ll have traditional Ashley on during some segments, and we\u2019ll have AI Ashley on during other segments,\u201d Phil Becker, Alpha Media EVP of Content, explained to TechCrunch. \u201cIn an instance where AI Ashley would be broadcasting, the traditional Ashley might be doing something in the community, managing social posts or working on digital assets or the other elements that come with the job.\u201d<\/p>\n Becker also noted that Alpha Media isn\u2019t using RadioGPT to save costs. It\u2019s meant to be an efficient tool for radio hosts to have in their toolset.<\/p>\n Listeners may be wary of AI DJs, since they have tuned into local radio personalities for years and don\u2019t necessarily want to listen to a robotic-sounding voice on their way to work in the morning. That\u2019s why Live 95.5 trained the AI to sound like an existing radio host that the audience has already connected with.<\/p>\n As seen in a tweet<\/a>\u00a0where Elzinga shows off her AI DJ counterpart, the voice is similar to the real thing but very obvious that it\u2019s AI. The synthetic voice also introduces itself as AI Ashley, so listeners know that an AI is speaking and not a real human.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the absolute most important parts of this is that we\u2019re transparent with the listener. It\u2019s not our intent to ever deceive anybody,\u201d added Becker.<\/p>\n Twitter users expressed their disappointment in the new decision. One user even said the AI voice was disrespectful to the entire radio profession.<\/p>\n We made history as the world’s first radio station with an AI DJ! Our midday host Ashley has become AI Ashley! We can\u2019t wait for you to meet Ashley, the world’s first artificially intelligent DJ. As to the intelligence of our other DJ\u2019s\u2026we\u2019ll save that for another post \ud83d\ude09 pic.twitter.com\/CtlMhYU0IO<\/a><\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-10-at-4.16.50-PM.png?resize=1140%2C649&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n