A week after entrusting artificial intelligence with the presentation of its broadcasts, a regional Polish radio station was forced to give up in the face of an outcry. The director of the channel evokes an experience intended to launch the debate.
The experience shook the world of culture and media in Poland in early November. Placed in liquidation and forced to part ways with certain freelancers in September, the channel Radio Off Cracovie decides to entrust the presentation of its shows to virtual journalists driven by artificial intelligence: Kuba, Alex and Emi. All three have a vocal and visual identity and a personality summarized in a few lines on the radio website. Emi is a journalism student with a passion for pop culture.
Symbolically, we can say that we have been replaced by AI
Their arrival on the airwaves sparked indignation in Poland, starting with that of freelance journalist Mateusz Demski, who immediately denounced the creation of these three avatars. The radio had actually stopped collaborating with him in September.
“Just a few months ago, we were flesh-and-blood collaborators. Today, three new presenters have been created with the help of artificial intelligence. Symbolically, we can therefore say that we have been replaced by AI”, he summarized Monday in the RTS show Tout un monde.
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“A project meant to open discussion”
An accusation which the channel has formally defended. For radio director Marcin Pulit, it was above all a project intended to open the discussion on the limits of the use of AI in Poland. “Our radio experiment is a contribution to the debate and the legal decisions that will be taken on the subject,” he explained.
Among these experiences, the interview with Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1996 and who died in 2012. It was Emi’s avatar who led the conversation with her live last Thursday. This virtual interview was prepared in advance to verify and validate the words that the AI attributed to the missing author.
“A journalist first asked Chat GPT what Wislawa Szymborska’s answer would be to this or that question, then we transposed it into her artificial voice,” explains Marcin Pulit.
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“It can become an instrument of manipulation”
In the eyes of Lukasz Zalewski, another former Radio Off Krakow freelancer, having an AI interview a deceased personality played by another AI goes too far. “We cannot claim to know what these personalities think. We put words into their mouths that they might never have said. We cannot speak for them! And it can become an instrument of manipulation,” he warns.
Behind these creations, there were still real people […] But this legend according to which we replaced our journalists with avatars continued to spread
The experiment ultimately came to an end. After a petition demanding the removal of these AI-driven journalists gathered more than 17,000 signatures in 24 hours, Marcin Pulit resigned this Monday, announcing that he would give up these new types of collaborators.
“Behind these creations, there were still real people, journalists who, using artificial intelligence, generated dispatches and simple texts. They were then verified and declaimed by the artificial voices of the avatars. But this legend according to which we would have replaced our journalists with avatars continued to spread, so we decided to stop,” testifies the director of Radio Off Krakow.
Supervision laws during work
He nevertheless considers himself satisfied with the debate generated by the project. Journalists, artists and even politicians reacted strongly, pleading for legal supervision of the use of AI in Poland. Digital Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski announced that his ministry was already working on the necessary legal adjustments.
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“We must make these changes responsibly so that humans do not lose out. We are working at the ministry on laws that go in this direction,” he indicated. “Humans remain at the center of our concerns. AI must not act against humans, but be a tool to help them”
Although the project was supposed to last three months, it ended barely a week after its launch.
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Radio subject: Adrien Sarlat
Web writing: Vincent Cherpillod
