Content by Anthony Dockrill
It’s becoming nearly impossible to navigate your way through the AI debate. From the endless hype from boosters inside the AI tent to the rampant doomerism from many who want to reject this technology entirely. What we need isn’t more breathless predictions, but a clear-eyed look at what’s actually happening right now.
One thing is for sure: our working lives will never be the same.
My position has always been one of embracing this technology where it can help me do my work better or more quickly, but at the same time I’m not lining up to drink the Kool-Aid.
AI at its best, as written about by Steve Ahern this week, is one where it’s used as a productivity tool in new and creative ways. My worry is AI can also be used as a way to solely lower an organisation’s headcount. A recent story in the Guardian told a tale that is every radio person’s horror story. Radio Kraków in Poland let go of about a dozen staff, all replaced by AI. The outcry caused by this move resulted in a quick retreat, but the journalists and presenters were not rehired. It’s pretty clear we are entering a new phase in AI where the boost in productivity and also new functionality this technology is developing is going to result in real job losses.
We have already had an AI presenter on air in Australia, and like what happened in Poland, the outcry was loud. Even I got in on the act. I personally think it would be foolish to believe this outcry alone will stop a rollout of this technology in the future.
The local industry is embracing AI in many ways, and many of these uses of this technology will improve what radio does and how it delivers its content. However, I’m not convinced when we are dealing with changes this fundamental that we should just let the market decide this one, just like we don’t let the market decide what is real or fake news or whether it will or won’t pay super.
Some degree of oversight is needed.
Governments do and should step in where the risks and impact are simply too large not just to the industry but to the community in general.
The radio industry employs something in the order of 10,000 people, and about 1,600 of those are on air working as presenters. Also not shown by these figures is the role these positions play in making a richer and more cohesive society.
In the same week that Hungry Jack’s replaced workers on its drive-through, it’s pretty clear many workers in the radio industry are now vulnerable to being replaced.
If there are job losses in the industry, my view is that it will probably be felt in regional Australia first. Should we let regional radio and radio in general become a wasteland of AI slop, or should we ensure that these services remain services?
It strikes me there is a simple way Australia could embrace the promise of AI technology while protecting key jobs, and that is to pass legislation that AI cannot be used to impersonate a human being, real or fictional, in a wide range of roles. This not only cuts to someone’s ability to earn a livelihood as a radio presenter, it also means Australians across the country are not misled or even tricked into thinking they are listening to a human being when they are not.
Such a move would protect the radio industry and regional Australia, which I think is particularly vulnerable, but also potentially many jobs outside of the industry such as receptionists, psychologists and many more. If AI is allowed to impersonate humans without major limitations, we will see many job losses but will also see an explosion in fraud or just plain manipulation as people sign up to goods and services they were influenced into taking with not a human anywhere in the chain.
For the media, the stakes couldn’t be higher as we may see a further erosion in trust and a possible breakdown in the fundamental relationship it has with the people it serves.
Whilst the hype of AI may mean many of the worst outcomes of this technology may never come about, I think it would be foolish to take a wait-and-see approach to key parts of the economy and the media. Legislation limiting AI as suggested here would require Australia to stand up to America and the large tech companies. Australia has recently led the world with placing age limits on social media. It must be said in that case we did act, but only after enormous damage to many Australians had already happened.
Anthony Dockrill is a Digital Producer at Pod Jam and the former Program Director of 2SER FM Sydney.