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Is A.I. Coming for Radio?

Taking a page from ChatGPT, a company in Ohio has created an AI-powered DJ that’s designed to read the news, talk about trending social media posts, and crack jokes during song breaks.

Futuri last week launched “RadioGPT,” a system that can help radio stations localize their content to a market and phase out pre-recorded segments for live radio talk from an artificial DJ.

The technology taps OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model, which also powers ChatGPT, an AI-powered program that can generate human-like conversations on any topic. Futuri decided to use GPT-3 to create content from the company’s TopicPulse program, which can quickly identify news and events trending on social media. The generated content is then read outloud using an artificial but human-sounding voice.

Futuri created a demo of RadioGPT, which shows the system using various artificial voices during song breaks. “Anything a radio human can do, I can do better,” the program proudly proclaims at one point.

In the demo, RadioGPT talks about the news and social media topics trending in a city called Springfield. “By and large, the stories in the demo sample are actual stories, but from a variety of different markets, and the names may be changed (We used ‘Springfield’ because there are several in the US and Canada.),” Futuri told PCMag. “The sample is intended to be representative of the type of content one can hear on RadioGPT once launched by our partners.”

The website for the technology says it can also report the weather, discuss artists being played on the radio station, and hold giveaway prizes to listeners. So, it’s not hard to imagine RadioGPT representing a threat to human DJs when OpenAI’s own ChatGPT has sparked concerns about AI programs replacing some white-collar work.

”Programming is available for individual dayparts, or Futuri’s RadioGPT can power the entire station,” the company says in the announcement. Futuri also notes the technology could be used to train the technology with “existing personalities’ voices” at a radio station.

The system is already live for the company’s beta partners, which include the Portland, Oregon, company Alpha Media in the US and Roger Sports & Media in Canada. But one challenge facing the technology will be preventing the artificial DJ from making on-air mistakes, such as spouting misinformation.

The news comes shortly after Spotify added a DJ card to Premium users’ Music Feed in the Android and iOS apps. Tapping it triggers an AI DJ that serves up a list of music recommendations based on what Spotify already knows you like. That DJ is equipped with a “stunningly realistic voice” to offer “commentary around the tracks and artists.”

First published by pcmag. Read original here