Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #617

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Australian Radio Station Secretly Used An AI Host For Six Months
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTvlPzBfRD0
the words “old school” across different shows.
ARN project leader Fayed Tohme subse- quently acknowl- edged the use of AI to create the voice of Thy, writing in a since-deleted LinkedIn post that Thy “sounds real” and has real fans, despite not being a real per- son.
“No mic, no studio, just code and vibes,” he wrote in the post, which was shared by Mediaweek. “An experiment by ARN and ElevenLabs that’s pushing the bound- aries of what ‘live radio’ even means.”
There are currently no rules against the use of AI in broadcast content, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, how- ever the Australian Radio Network was criticised for not dis- closing the use of AI on one of its regular shows.
“They should have
been upfront and completely honest, disclosing that the radio host was an AI,” Teresa Lim, vice pres- ident of the Australian Association of Voice Actors, told Mediaweek.
“People have been deceived into thinking it’s a real person because there’s no AI labelling.”
ARN said in a state- ment that it was “exploring how new technology can sup- port great content” and improve its out- put.
“We’ve been trialling AI audio tools on CADA using the voice of Thy, an ARN team member,” the state- ment read.
“This is a space being explored by broad- casters globally, and while the trial has offered valuable insights, it’s also rein- forced the unique value that personali- ties bring to creating truly compelling con- tent.”
By
Anthony Cuthbertson
An Australian radio station is facing back- lash after using an AI- generated host for the last six months with- out disclosing it.
Australian Radio Network’s CADA sta- tion, which broad- casts in Sydney and on the iHeartRadio app, created a host called Thy using artifi- cial intelligence soft- ware developed by voice cloning firm ElevenLabs.
The Workdays
with Thy show pre- sented music for four hours a day from Monday to Friday, but did not mention on its website or promotion- al materials that Thy was not a real per- son.
“If your day is looking a bit bleh, let Thy and CADA be the energy and vibe to get your mood lifted,”
the show’s page states.
Thy’s true identity only emerged after Sydney-based writer
Stephanie
Coombes questioned whether Thy was a real person.
In blog post earlier this month, Ms Coombes wrote: “What is Thy’s last name? Who is she? Where did she come from? There is no biography, or further information about the woman who is sup- posedly presenting this show.”
Audio analysis of voice clips revealed that the host sounded identical when saying
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