Radio station faces backlash after listeners duped by AI host for 6 months

An Australian radio station is facing backlash from listeners after it revealed that an artificial intelligence-generated host had been hosting a show for six months.

The virtual host named Thy was created by ElevenLabs, which is a voice-cloning AI software used by Australian Radio Network (ARN) station CADA.

The Sydney-based radio station had Thy hosting a show called Workdays with Thy that aired four hours a day from Monday to Friday, where she would play music and introduce songs.

The show’s website promoted the show, writing, “Curated by our music experts, these are the songs that are charting or on the cusp of blowing up — hear it first with Thy so you can boast to your friends and say you were all over it first.”

The station didn’t let its listeners know that Thy was not a real person. Its secret was revealed after Sydney-based writer Stephanie Coombes started asking about Thy’s identity in a blog post.

Coombes asked, “What’s Thy’s last name? Who is she? Where did she come from?”

“There is no biography, or further information about the woman who is supposedly presenting this show,” Coombes added.

This led to the radio station’s owner, ARN Media, confirming to the Australian Financial Review that while Thy is AI-generated, her voice and likeness are modelled after an actual employee in the company’s financial department.

“We’ve been trialing AI audio tools on CADA, using the voice of Thy, an ARN team member,” a spokesperson for ARN said in a statement. “This is a space being explored by broadcasters globally, and the trial has offered valuable insights.”

The spokesperson also said the trial highlighted “the power of real personalities in driving compelling content.”

Teresa Lim, vice-president of the Australian Association of Voice Actors, called out CADA’s failure to disclose its use of AI in a LinkedIn post.

“AI can be such a powerful and positive tool in broadcasting if there are correct safeguards in place,” she wrote. “Authenticity and truth are so important for broadcast media. The public deserves to know what the source is of what’s being broadcast.… We need to have these discussions now before AI becomes so advanced that it’s too difficult to regulate.”

Lim also referenced being an Asian woman working in Australian media and how it can be difficult for her demographic to break into the broadcasting industry.

“As an Asian-Australian female HUMAN voice actor and presenter in the radio and advertising industry, I find this industry-first move offensive on various levels,” Lim wrote.

“When we found out she was just a cardboard cut-out, it cemented the disappointment. There are a limited number of Asian-Australian female presenters who are available for the job, so just give it to one of them. Don’t take that opportunity away from a minority group who’s already struggling,” she added.

Lim suggested that the way forward to work with AI in radio broadcasting is by creating “explicit AI labelling laws to precent this level of deception.”

“We need transparency in the use and creation of AI material. The Australian public deserve to be able to trust what we hear on-air,” she added.

Many listeners took to social media to discuss the importance of disclosing this information after it was revealed that Thy was an AI personality.

Trending Now

AI has come under increasing criticism in recent months, particularly after artists were forced to warn fans of “fake” songs spreading online that use AI to mimic their voices.

Most recently, Celine Dion’s representatives posted a statement on her Instagram saying that songs purporting to be a replicated version of Dion are “not approved and are not songs from her official discography.”

They said the recordings have appeared on various digital platforms.

While Dion’s camp did not reference the songs by name, several fake recordings have popped up on YouTube credited as an AI model of the singer’s voice.

One is a cover of the gospel song Heal Me Lord, which has amassed more than one million views, while versions of a fake Dion have been used for several duets, including one of I Will Always Love You with Whitney Houston and See You Again with Charlie Puth.

— With files from The Canadian Press