Polish radio station replaces journalists with AI ‘presenters’
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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.
