Could your job be replaced by Artificial Intelligence? What about ChatGPT?
Those are the water cooler conversations that have been happening all over the country over the last few weeks following more reports of both products becoming more prevalent in every day life.
In radio, much of what we do is automated far beyond what the listener envisions. They likely have visions of what radio stations looked like a generation or two ago, not what they look like in 2023..
Like it or not, that’s the reality of how the industry has operated. Some of those decisions have been solid business moves, some have been short-sighted and hurt the product over the long haul.
But as we look to the next wave of technology, who should be concerned about AI and/or products like ChatGPT?
Anchors, reporters, play-by-play announcers would be the obvious on-air (no pun intended) targets of AI.
Just check out this AI call from some trials being done at The Masters this week.
Sure, it’s not Jim Nantz. But it’s not too shabby.
Meantime, if AI is getting smart enough to do play-by-play, it’s easy to see how the idea of an AI-generated news or sports anchor would be an obvious “next”. Heck, in China, there is already an AI news anchor who works 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. China’s state-owned news outlet People Daily unveiled its new presenter named “Ren Xiaorong” in a video posted on the country’s main social media platform Weibo last month.
Here’s that video. And no, don’t ask me for an interpretation.
Then, there’s ChatGPT. It’s essentially a simulated chatbot primarily designed for customer service, but people use it for various other purposes too. These range from writing essays to drafting business plans, to generating code.
There will come a day when a product like ChatGPT could easily displace thousands of news and sports reporters around the country. How about AI-driven AP wire writers?
Granted, none of this is happening tomorrow, next week, or next year, but it would be naive to think that this day could not ultimately come.
However, enter: creative, opinion-driven, talk show hosts.
I have a hard time seeing anywhere in the near future how AI could inject the personality, insight, humor, interaction, and conversational nature of a talk show host to put together a show that is fast-paced, original, and can and will need to change on the fly. This feels like a bridge too far, at least in my lifetime.
That’s not to say that there aren’t ever going to be job cuts. There will be. That’s how it works. But as many white-collar jobs are the expected target of AI jobs in the future (Business Insider listed some of the top potential jobs on the chopping block), it’s safe to say that as long as people still desire talk-driven content in any format, we should be safe. For now… I think?
Then again, someone will need to fix these AI machines and software systems, right?
Maybe I should brush up on my coding, just in case.
Pete Mundo is a weekly columnist for Barrett Media, and the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. Previously, he was a fill-in host nationally on FOX News Radio and CBS Sports Radio, while anchoring for WFAN, WCBS News Radio 880, and Bloomberg Radio. Pete was also the sports and news director for Omni Media Group at K-1O1/Z-92 in Woodward, Oklahoma. He’s also the owner of the Big 12-focused digital media outlet Heartland College Sports. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
