Immediately After Deadly Hezbollah Pager Blasts, This AI-Generated Podcast Goes Up

While the idea of ​​a fast-changing, AI-powered podcast may sound scary to some fans and creators, some players in the industry see it as inevitable. Oskar Serrander, who describes his AI-meets-podcasting studio Wondercraft as “Canva for audio,” says he sees AI as a way to help composers “produce at the speed of culture.” While he admits there are limitations to AI, such as the way the technology tends to draw on past ideas rather than create new concepts, he likes how it can lower the barrier to entry for certain brands or creators.

Serrander notes that there are fewer podcast creators than OnlyFans. Meanwhile, there are millions of YouTube channels, and “then you have TikTok and other social media channels and all those creators” competing for people’s attention. AI, he says, could lead to the “democratization of podcasts,” ultimately giving rise to what he thinks could be an interesting—and profitable—industry.

Admittedly, that’s not how those deeply invested in the art of podcasting see it. Jason Saldanha, CEO of nonprofit digital radio broadcaster PRX, says the creators he’s worked with seem wary of AI, in part because they believe radio’s “real strength is the viewer-audience relationship.” (Disclosure: PRX distributes podcasts for WIRED’s parent company, Condé Nast.)

While it’s certainly tempting to use AI to translate a podcast into 20 languages ​​and appear worldwide, it’s pushing the limits of the authenticity of the work. “The most successful podcasts have a one-to-one relationship with their audience, such that the audience believes they are communicating with those people in the same room or working with them to solve a problem together,” said Saldanha. Tapping an AI voice to read the news of the day or create a brand new story related to the news of the day may seem tempting to those who want to do podcasting for a buck, but in the long run you think it’s a losing game.

“Many audio companies are owned by former radio executives, in the 1990s, they released advertisements that were close to 50 percent of the content on air,” explained Saldanha. “That created a moment where the audience was like, ‘This is too many commercials. I need an alternative,’ so they went to Napster and Spotify.”

Now that those executives are working on digital audio, Saldanha says, they’re using the same tactics, looking to monetize podcasts all the way. Doing that while also adding podcasts to the market will lower the quality of premium content, putting the entire podcast industry at risk.

“These types of companies flood the market with content to get a low engagement rate, and that’s good as a strategy, but it’s not a long-term strategy,” Saldanha said. “It’s bad and bad, and, in the end, you cut off your nose just to make a dollar.”

Caloroga Shark doesn’t see it that way. For Francis, AI should be part of the mix of tools podcasters use to stand out in a crowded field. Audiences “will decide which shows deserve staying power, whether they use AI or not,” he says. Pager Protocol it may or may not be in that mix.