A Polish radio station has sparked backlash after firing its journalists and restarting operations this week with “presenters” created by artificial intelligence.
Weeks after laying off its journalists, OFF Radio Krakow reopened this week in what it said was “the first experiment in Poland in which journalists… are virtual characters created by artificial intelligence.”
The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars were designed to reach younger listeners, speaking about cultural, artistic and social issues, including the concerns of LGBTQ+ people.
“Is artificial intelligence another opportunity or a threat for the media, radio and journalism? We will look for answers to this question,” station chief Marcin Pulit wrote in a statement.
Letter of protest
The move drew national attention after Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who until recently hosted a program on the network, published an open letter on Tuesday protesting “the replacement of workers with artificial intelligence.”
“This is a dangerous precedent that affects us all,” he wrote, arguing that it could pave the way “for a world in which experienced workers associated with the media sector for years and people employed in the creative industries will be replaced by machines.” .
More than 15,000 had signed the petition as of Wednesday morning, Demsky told The Associated Press. He also said he has received calls from hundreds of people, many of whom are young people who do not want to be subjected to such an experience.
Krzysztof Gawkowski, minister of digital affairs and deputy prime minister, weighed in on Tuesday, saying he had read Demski’s appeal and that legislation was needed to regulate AI.
“Although I am a fan of the development of artificial intelligence, I believe that some limits are increasingly being crossed,” he wrote on X. “The widespread use of artificial intelligence should be 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 for Literature who died in 2012.
Source: CNN