Planet Money AI-Generated Podcast Episode

IT Culture

2023-06-03 10:51:41+00

The previous couple episodes of the Planet Money Podcast contained information about what they were doing to explore AI's potential in taking over their jobs as writers and podcasters, including the creation of an AI voice created by sampling a former host.

This episode was the final result - a shorter 15-minute episode written entirely by ChatGPT and read in the character of the former sampled host, along with a current host whose script was also written by ChatGPT only read by the real person.

It's a remarkable show about how telephone operators were put out of jobs by automated switching machines at the telephone companies, complete with an interview of an author and historian on the subject.

Afterward, the hosts and some of their peers share their reaction, and it's a bit surprising how most of them "missed the joke" the AI was playing on them. If it was.

This episode is truly worth the listen, and is as funny as it is informative, in ways we'll be thinking about for some time to come.