Polish radio station OFF Radio Krakow recently announced a bold decision: to fully adopt artificial intelligence (AI) as hosts to explore the impact of AI on society. This decision, described by the station's chief editor, Marcin Pulit, as a social experiment, is widely seen by outsiders as a cost-saving measure.
OFF Radio Krakow, an online and DAB+ subsidiary of Radio Krakow, announced this week that it will fully adopt AI, with new programs hosted by three AI presenters named "Emi," "Kuba," and "Alex." These AI hosts have their own background stories and personalities, created by journalists. The content for these AI presenters is prepared by human journalists using AI tools, checked and verified by journalists after text generation, and then converted into audio.
Image source note: The image was generated by AI, authorized by the service provider Midjourney
The same applies to written stories on the website and the music selections made by AI hosts during their weekly "Author" music broadcast.
The first project fully created by AI on the website was an interview between the late Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska and Emi about this year's Nobel Literature Prize. Unlike previous instances of using deceased celebrities' images, this at least received consent.
This decision was made after the station laid off a batch of on-site talents. A former broadcaster who was laid off expressed in a petition that he demanded the station stop its AI experiment. The petition currently has over 20,000 signatures. Mateusz Demski stated in the petition that "a dozen or so people" at OFF Radio Krakow lost their jobs because the studio suddenly shifted to an AI-centric platform.
Demski blames this decision on Pulit, calling it another example of the creative industry still being threatened by AI, as demonstrated by the Hollywood strike. "This 'experiment' is not only a blow to OFF journalists but also to our entire community," Demski said. "The case of OFF Radio Krakow is an important reminder for the entire industry."
Meanwhile, Pulit stated that those laid off were not cut because of AI. "These are guest collaborators who produce programs for us weekly," Pulit said in an interview with Business Insider Poland. "The contracts did not expire because of the introduction of artificial intelligence, but because this model did not work."
In his announcement, he wrote that the real reason was to engage in what AI brings to society—whether good or bad. "We want to consider what impacts the development of artificial intelligence might have on culture, media, journalism, and society," Pulit wrote. "Are AI opportunities or threats to media, broadcasting, and journalism? We will seek answers to this question."
But the real reason might just be to save money. The Polish media is currently undergoing a transformation, which may have more to do with the current situation. When the current Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office last year, one of his promises was to depoliticize Poland's public news service. The new government claims that the previous right-wing government widely used it to promote national propaganda.
Therefore, 17 different regional public radio stations, including Radio Krakow, were forced to liquidate and restructure. Pulit, now the chief editor of OFF Radio Krakow and the designated liquidator of the broader Radio Krakow group, has been warning about the station's financial situation.
Earlier this year, Pulit told Polish media that Radio Krakow's financial situation was very bad, and he was not sure if the station could pay its employees. However, in the same interview, he said he did not intend to lay off staff. "This task plan must be completed by someone, so I do not intend to look for savings in personnel," Pulit told Polish media Onet. Of course, contributors are not real employees, so Pulit obviously had no problem replacing them with some trendy new digital presenters.
But they are also temporary workers—OFF Radio Krakow does not plan to continue this broadcasting method indefinitely. "This project is time-limited," Pulit noted. "We assume it will not last more than three months and will be evaluated." Sorry, Emi, Kuba, and Alex—they don't seem to care about your future either.
