AI-generated podcasts are flooding the market, with studios producing hundreds of thousands of episodes that sound increasingly indistinguishable from human hosts.
The technology offers cost savings and opportunities for creators, but many in the industry worry AI hosts undermine listener trust and devalue premium content.
Some popular podcasters, including Steven Bartlett, are cloning their voices for AI content, while others are pushing back against the technology’s rapid expansion.
Seems like every day the internet continues its downhill acceleration into full on Dark Forest AI slop apocalypse.
We really ought to be working on more and better tools for sharing human created and curated spaces.
Probably all just end up on the darknet.
It’s so bad that iHeart has added “Guaranteed Human” to their podcast bumper.
Which I like. I work in IT and am constantly getting shocked reactions when I say I don’t use AI and that it’s actually problematic in a lot of ways… A lot of people are not aware. I hope more companies choose to brand themselves as “human,” as long as it’s true.
How many companies have claimed AI magic but it was just humans in a sweatshop all along?
Yeah, that is the exact opposite of what incentives should be pointing them towards.
Like, I really hope our whole culture is about to get fed up with automated algorithmic bullshit and hit a moment where the fact that something came from a messy and inconsistent “human” is something that’s elevated and valued for being genuine and authentic as opposed to automated convenient bullshit.
Being “Human” and creating space for “human” moments is a goal you can chase in a lot of different contexts (media and art creation, community organizing and political discussions, more abstract philosophical principles, etc.), and it’s a value that can transcend national borders and wealth disparities and get people thinking about our species as a whole, which is a mode of thinking I believe we’re desperately going to need in the future as climate change gets worse for all of us.
but many in the industry worry AI hosts undermine listener trust and devalue premium content.
The only way companies are gonna be able to monetize AI…
Is charging a premium to have a store with no AI slop.
Then once everyone subscribes to that store, change it so there is AI slop in it anyway, just in a “limited form,” and you have to raise your subscription to the “Premium Plus” model to get rid of it.
Ah, the Etsy strategy
And then that will have slop anyway.
I downloaded a 2021 kiwix archive of wikipedia so I still have an AI free version of knowledge.
Have not heard of kiwix before this and, seeing as my work has me frequenting a number of conenction dead zones, I can not communicate how valuable this tip is for me and my needs. My genuine thanks for sharing, stranger.
My brain kneejerked and went “duh just grab the latest…. …ohhh”
Off to download yet another kiwix file, thanks for the tip friend
Ah, the version with uncorrected errors. I suppose it has a certain charm.
Airway?
As in “British Airways”.
The service that prevents AI slop will eventually be able to charge a premium.
Ideally they should be preventing slop of all kinds, but this would be a good start.
