Do you all remember ElevenLabs, the AI voice generator we shared before? Just upload a recording of yourself, and ElevenLabs can create a custom voice model based on your voice. After that, all you need to do is type in text, and it will read it out in your voice. Recently, CADA, a well-known Australian radio station, used this technology to create an AI DJ and even had the AI host a program. Surprisingly, this AI DJ performed so convincingly that no one realized it wasn’t human. However, CADA’s approach has also sparked controversy. Many people pointed out that the station did not inform listeners that AI technology was being used in the program, calling this practice highly inappropriate. The Australian Voice Actors Association has also publicly criticized CADA’s actions.
An Australian radio station used an AI DJ as a host for six months, and no one noticed at all.
According to foreign media reports, CADA has been using AI-generated DJs to host programs over the past few months. CADA’s parent company, ARN Media, uses an AI DJ named Thy, created with ElevenLabs voice generation technology, in its radio program “Workdays with Thy.”
ARN Media says that although Thy is an AI DJ produced through ElevenLabs, his voice and image come from a real employee in the company’s finance department, and he is not entirely fictional or fully constructed by AI. As for the principle behind this technology, we have actually previouslyIntroductionExample: Just upload a recording to ElevenLabs, and it can generate a corresponding voice model. Then simply input text, and you can hear AI read these words out loud in your voice. As shown in the example below:
- ElevenLabs Output Effect (Chinese)
- ElevenLabs Output Effect (English)
CADA did not explicitly tell listeners that the DJ on the “Workdays with Thy” program was AI. In the program’s description, they only stated it was curated by “our music experts,” without disclosing the fact that Thy was AI-generated. Since the program launched in November 2024, it has accumulated at least 72,000 listeners, all of whom listened to the AI-hosted program without any knowledge of this. In response, the vice president of the Australian Voice Actors Association criticized ARN Media, arguing that Australian listeners deserve honest and transparent information, rather than discovering only afterward that the program host they had been listening to for six months was actually AI.
The topic of AI replacing human jobs has long been a subject of great attention and controversy.Earlier, Radio Kraków in Poland launched three AI virtual hosts.At the time, it also drew widespread criticism, indicating that people remain highly skeptical and resistant to AI replacing human jobs. Although AI applications can help radio stations save costs, keeping listeners in the dark is undoubtedly a disrespectful practice. As things stand, the coexistence of humans and AI still faces many challenges, and there is a long road ahead.
If you’re interested in trying out the text-to-speech example we shared earlier, click the link below to read the related report.
Source: KOCPC Chinese