On Thursday, Swiss public radio station Couleur 3 (Color 3) attempted something revolutionary – completely relying on AI (Artificial Intelligence) to control its airwaves for a complete 13 hours – in what is believed to be a world first. Through this initiative, listeners were subjected to cloned voices of their favorite presenters, never-before-heard musical compositions almost entirely created by computers and robotic-sentiments every 20 minutes – to remind that the ultimate subject remain robots however, human-like their voices may sound.
The process was undertaken with the help of software company Respeecher, which is comprised mostly of a Ukrainian team and has collaborated with many Hollywood movie studios. It took the joint forces of Couleur 3 and Respeecher three months to train their AI bots to understand the station’s needs and carry the quirky-offbeat vibe for 13 hours without fail.
The project was led by Antoine Multone, the station’s chief. Despite some people being worried that such a project could lead to human unemployment- replacing them with robots and deadening journalism, Multone was quick to defend it, stating it as a lesson of how we can learn to coexist with AI.
This intimidating experiment also made an attempt to break the boundary between reality and “fake” and to do this, robotic voices were sent to announce news flashes that were way too futuristic to be accurate- yet never actually happened in real-life. In the face of much apprehension, Couleur 3 clarifies their stance and embrace AI, aiming to de-mystify it.
Futuri, a Seven Hills-based media company, have adopted a similar methodology with the introduction of their own product, RadioGPT. With AI taking its presence increasingly known, many musicians feel wronged as they believe their style has been ripped off.
Couleur 3 thus provides a unique opportunity to people to learn more about this exciting yet intimidating, new evolutionary stage in technology. Their experiment proved fruitful, as hundreds of messages poured in, sparking off debates and stimulating curiosity in all.
The article also puts a spotlight on Respeecher, the software company responsible for helping clone the voices of the five presenters taking part in this project. This incredible initiative has opened paths for new, previously unimaginable possibilities in the integration of AI in the arts and journalism, among many other industries, and has done so in a successful manner.
