Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI ‘presenters’

The presumption successful the confederate metropolis of Krakow said its 3 avatars are designed to scope younger listeners by speaking astir cultural, creation and societal issues including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people.

“Is artificial quality much of an accidental oregon a menace to media, vigor and journalism? We volition question answers to this question,” the presumption head, Marcin Pulit, wrote successful a statement.

The alteration got nationwide attraction aft Mateusz Demski, a writer and movie professional who until precocious hosted a amusement connected the station, published an unfastened missive Tuesday protesting “the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence”.

“It is simply a unsafe precedent that hits america all,” helium wrote, and argued it could unfastened the mode “to a satellite successful which experienced employees associated with the media assemblage for years and radical employed successful originative industries volition beryllium replaced by machines”.

More than 15,000 signed the petition by Wednesday morning, Demski told The Associated Press. He said helium has besides gotten calls from hundreds of people, galore of them young radical who bash not privation to beryllium the taxable of specified an experiment.

Demski worked astatine OFF Radio Krakow from February 2022, carrying retired interviews with Ukrainians fleeing war, until August, erstwhile helium was among astir a twelve journalists who were fto go. He said the determination was particularly shocking due to the fact that the broadcaster is simply a taxpayer-supported nationalist station.

Pulit insisted that nary journalists were fired due to the fact that of AI but due to the fact that its listenership “was adjacent to zero”.

On Tuesday the presumption broadcast an “interview” conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a dependable pretending to beryllium Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish writer and victor of the Nobel Prize successful Literature who died successful 2012.

Krzysztof Gawkowski, the curate of integer affairs and a lawman premier minister, weighed successful connected Tuesday, saying helium had work Demski’s communicative and that authorities is needed to modulate AI.

“Although I americium a instrumentality of AI development, I judge that definite boundaries are being crossed much and more,” helium wrote connected X. “The wide usage of AI indispensable beryllium done for people, not against them!”