The voice you hear on your favorite, local AM and FM radio stations could soon be powered by a realistic-sounding robot.
On Thursday, Futuri Media unveiled a new product called Radio GPT, which it bills as the world’s-first artificial intelligence-driven localized radio content solution.
The product uses Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) technology, such as that found in the ChatGPT product, and combines it with Futuri’s AI-driven story discovery solution that scours hundreds of thousands of Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and websites to find localized content for radio stations.
The end result is a robot that can offer news reports, traffic updates, weather conditions and other information sound bytes between songs and commercial breaks.
“As early AI innovators in the broadcast space, it’s only natural that we’re bringing the incredible power of GPT-3 technology, paired with groundbreaking technology like Topic Pulse, to radio,” Daniel Anstandig, the CEO of Futuri Media, said in a press release on Thursday. “The ability for broadcasters to use Radio GPT to localize their on-air content in a turnkey fashion opens up resources for them to deepen their important home-field advantages in new and unique ways. With Radio GPT, the possibilities are endless. With Radio GPT, there should never be a ‘liner card’ or ‘sweeper-only’ air shift again — now everyone can be live and local.”
At least one major radio broadcast owner, Alpha Media, has already signed on to be an early partner of Radio GPT for its local radio stations in the United States.
“At Alpha Media, we always seek innovative ways to engage our audiences; that’s why we’re a part of Futuri’s Radio GPT beta group,” read a quote attributed to Phil Becker, the executive vice president of content at Alpha Media, who later admitted that a robot wrote the quote for him.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Alpha Media plans to integrate Radio GPT into its products, or whether it will lead to job losses for any of its current on-air talent or content producers.
In Canada, Rogers Sports & Media has also signed on to serve as an early launch partner for Radio GPT, though the company didn’t offer any information as to how it will use the technology.
Futuri didn’t address how it intends to ensure the information Radio GPT uses will be reliable and accurate. Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites have been criticized over the last few years for spreading misinformation related to politics, science, health and crime.
Futuri launched a streaming radio station that shows a proof of performance for Radio GPT. The station, which broadcasts to the fictional town of Springfield, can be heard by clicking or tapping here.
