- Legendary British TV speak present host Michael Parkinson to return in AI type
- Polish radio station Off Radio Krakow sacks its hosts and makes use of AI as a substitute
- New Tom Hanks film Right here makes use of AI to de-age its stars
AI is getting used to launch a brand new podcast from the late, nice British TV speak present host Michael Parkinson, who died in 2023 aged 88. Whereas that may sound creepy to some, the undertaking known as Just about Parkinson is being absolutely backed by Mike Parkinson, the son of the legendary speak present host, and his property.
Just about Parkinson has been produced by Deep Fusion Movies and will probably be an 8-part sequence launching later this yr. Every episode will probably be unscripted, with the visitors speaking to the AI-generated Parkinson on headphones, as if he was an actual individual.
Michael Parkinson, often known as “Parky”, was a legend of the British speak present scene, most notable for his TV present known as merely Parkinson, which launched in 1971 and was a mainstay of British tv till 1982. The present was introduced again in 1998 and ran till 2004.
You’ll be able to hear the AI-generated Michael Parkinson speak on a latest episode of ‘The remaining is leisure’ podcast. The truth that this isn’t Michael Parkinson speaking is especially creepy as a result of it sounds similar to him. His son nonetheless seems to be completely on board with the undertaking. Every episode of the present is signposted to point that that is an AI-generated Michael Parkinson speaking, so there is no such thing as a try to deceive the listener. Speaking to Podnews, Mike Parkinson commented “The podcast is known as a tribute to my Dad. I would like audiences to marvel on the expertise, the cleverness and the cheekiness of the idea, however principally I would like them to recollect simply how good he was at interviewing and benefit from the nostalgia and joyful reminiscences. Via this platform, his legacy can proceed, entertaining a brand new era of followers.”
The way forward for podcasts
Earlier this yr I wrote about NotebookLM, Google’s podcast generator that produces a whole AI-generated podcast in minutes from analyzing an article or YouTube video. What astounded, and unnerved me, most about Pocket book LM was not the way it managed to speak knowledgeably about any topic, however how tough it was to inform that the podcast was fully AI-generated. The presenters sounded fully human. I knew at that time that this was solely the start of AI podcasting.
Whereas every podcast NotebookLM creates at present has the identical two presenters, it’s nonetheless early days for its growth and certainly it received’t be lengthy earlier than a wide range of presenters will probably be out there. At that time, it’s a must to begin questioning if there’s even a future for people presenting podcasts, speak reveals, and radio reveals.
Lately in Poland, your entire presenting workforce of radio station, Off Radio Krakow, was changed with AI bots, and the ensuing furore truly helped revive the station’s flagging fortunes. The three Gen Z presenters, Emilia, 20, Jakub, 22, and Alex 23 who come full with photos on the station’s web site are fully AI-generated. The station isn’t limiting AI to the hosts both, it even bagged an interview with Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish cultural icon, not too long ago, despite the fact that she died in 2012. Regardless of the revived fortunes of the station, which beforehand had hardly any listeners, the backlash to the sacking of human presenters for AI hosts prompted the station to desert its AI experiment ultimately.
AI killed the video star
AI mimics of human presenters received’t cease with podcasts and speak reveals. Chatbot web site Character AI has already hit the headlines and drawn some controversy, for its unrestricted skill to allow you to speak to long-dead historic figures like Socrates and Cleopatra, but additionally to extra trendy celebrities, each actual and fictional like Steve Jobs and Harry Potter.
Because the capabilities of AI video era proceed to enhance there was numerous hypothesis about AI replicating actors in motion pictures after their loss of life. One Hollywood star who shouldn’t be eager to be represented by AI within the afterlife is Robert Downy Jr. The star of the Marvel Avengers and Iron Man franchises not too long ago declared that “I’ll sue all future executives who make AI replicas of me,” throughout an episode of the On With Kara Swisher podcast.
Presently, it appears that evidently AI is being extra generally used to unsettlingly improve or manipulate residing actors. The $50 million film Right here not too long ago used AI to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright over a 60-year time interval, utilizing AI fashions that require no further {hardware} and present the outcomes throughout filming. It’s a expertise that wouldn’t have been doable three years in the past, and that’s way more environment friendly than utilizing pricey CGI to de-age actors on a frame-by-frame foundation.
There’s numerous concern from the artistic industries, significantly amongst artists and illustrators, that AI goes to steal or devalue their jobs, as AI picture creation turns into higher and extra practical, however as Just about Parkinson and the film Right here has proven, AI can truly be used to create experiences that wouldn’t have been doable earlier than. It stays to be seen if, ethically at the least, audiences will probably be snug with them.
