A radio station removes “Generation Z” AI presenters after a week of public outcry.

Facepalm: In another example of how most people don’t want AI replacing humans – no matter how many executives claim it saves money – a Polish radio station has abandoned an experiment in which its journalists were fired and replaced with AI “presenters” . The test was supposed to last three months, but the station decided to end it after just a week after massive public reaction.

On October 21, Radio Kraków announced that it was modernizing its OFF station by introducing three voice presenters created by artificial intelligence representing Generation Z. These avatars are 20-year-old journalism student and pop culture expert Emilia Nowa, 22-year-old acoustic engineering student Jakub Zieliński and 23-year-old former psychology student Alex, “socially engaged, passionately raising issues related to queer identity (and) culture.”

The reaction to this move was as vitriolic as could be expected. The anger was deepened by the fact that there were no longer human hosts of Radio Kraków at the station, because they were “external collaborators” whose contracts were not renewed, and “not because of artificial intelligence,” said editor-in-chief Marcin Pulit.

In Amazon level In a move of PR genius, the radio station decided that the first thing the artificial intelligence should do is interview Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and writer, Nobel Prize winner, who died in 2012. This was, of course, another recreation of artificial intelligence that caused even more outrage.

Szymborska in 2010

Mateusz Demski, a journalist and film critic who hosted a program on the station before the arrival of Generation Z robots, launched a petition calling for an end to the experiment and published an open letter in which he sharply criticizes “replacing workers with artificial intelligence.” Over 23,000 people signed the petition.

On Monday, Pulit revealed that the experiment using AI presenters is coming to an end. He claimed that his goal was to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and in that respect he succeeded. This is an interesting way to change reality, especially since the experiment was supposed to last three months.

“After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions and conclusions that we decided that it made no sense to continue,” Pulit wrote.

He admitted that the level of anger towards the AI ​​presenters and the ghastly artificial reanimation of the dead was a shock. He said the station was “surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments based on false reports.”

The moment of the cancellation was probably good: the radio had planned an interview with Józef Piłsudski, a Polish statesman who died in 1935.

Last June, KBFF (Live 95.5) introduced According to AI, Ashley is the world’s first radio station with an AI DJ. The presenter is a cloned AI version of midday host Ashley Elzinga, powered by Futuri Media’s RadioGPT. AI Ashley is still on the air, saving for the real Ashley Z when she takes a vacation.