Fired employees of a radio station in Poland to replace with artificial intelligence

A radio station in Poland has announced that it plans to use digital avatars created with artificial intelligence for its programs as part of a pilot project. Not long ago, this station started mass dismissal of its agents and journalists.

About two years ago, the first artificial intelligence tool for managing radio stations was introduced called RadioGPT; But at that time, no one thought that such tools could replace human forces with machines in a short period of time. In this regard, the radio station OFF Radio, which operates in the city of Krakow, Poland, fired its journalists about a week ago to begin the experimental use of automatic tools and virtual characters made with artificial intelligence. Of course, the manager of the network claims that the dismissals were done due to the low audience of the programs.

Managers of this radio station have announced that they have considered three digital avatars to replace the presenters, whose focus is on matching the tastes of young audiences. The avatars are supposed to talk about issues such as art and culture along with social issues of the day. The main manager of the radio has also said about the recent action and the journalists’ questions that “Is artificial intelligence a threat to the media, radio and the journalism industry or an opportunity?” We are looking for an answer to this question. Also recently, a program was broadcast from the said station, in which artificial intelligence conducted an interview with Wiszawa Szymborska, a Polish poet who died in 2012 and won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

What is the audience’s opinion about using artificial intelligence instead of journalists?

The public’s attention was drawn to the incident at the OFF Radio station when one of its journalists published an open letter protesting the replacement of employees with artificial intelligence-based tools. He, who is considered a film critic, recently had a program to interview Ukrainian refugees on this radio station; But now a new program with a digital avatar is taking his place. He also warned against the loss of jobs related to the media and considered the possibility of replacing creative jobs with machines very strong.

According to the Associated Press, more than 15,000 people have signed a digital petition protesting against the recent action of the radio station in question. The media’s attention to this issue has been to such an extent that the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, who is also the Minister of Digital Communications of this country, said in a post on the X platform that despite being in favor of the development of artificial intelligence, he believes that some sensitive lines have been violated. He has also mentioned that the OFF Radio station is funded by people’s taxes and the recent decision of its managers is shocking.