We've talked here many times about the use of A.I. as a radio host. Only a few stations have experimented with the technology so far, but at least they've been upfront about it.
Except in Australia. For the past six months, a station in Sydney has been airing a show called "Workdays with Thy," 'Thy' being the on-air jock.
Except this 'Thy' was part of some leg pulling, after it was revealed "he'd" been on the air for half a year without anyone being told it was a machine-generated personality. The voice was based on the vocal samples of a staffer in the finance department, of all places.
But the station never let listeners know..
And while it doesn't violate any of the country's broadcasting rules, it has irritated fans, who think the station should have told them what was going on.
So the question: if a Toronto radio station put on an A.I. announcer without telling you, would it bother you not to know? Would you stop listening? Or is "automation" - of which this is an admittedly different example - just part of the business?
I think it would annoy me a lot - but if I really liked what the station was doing, it probably wouldn't cause me to turn it off. Your mileage may vary.
Aussie radio uses an AI DJ for six months