ARTIFICIAL AUDIO: EMERGING USES OF AI IN PODCASTING

Resumen

Like other media industries (e.g. music, film, TV), the podcasting industry has spent the last year coming to grips with the impact that generative artificial intelligence tools will have on the future of podcast production and consumption. Several high-profile examples of AI-generated podcasts have raised questions about the ethics, legality, and creativity of AI for creating podcast scripts, voices, and sound design. These in turn raise larger concerns about ownership and the economics of the platforms that distribute podcasts (like Spotify). In this paper, I survey the state of artificial intelligence in the podcasting industry to address the following two questions: How is AI being used by podcasters and other actors in the podcasting industry? How is the use of AI in podcasting framed in articles and writing about the industry? By sampling a number of podcasts that employ AI during the production and consumption process (e.g. AI scriptwriting, AI voiced hosts, AI sound design, etc.), my paper explores how podcasters and others in the podcasting industry are using AI as part of their everyday work. I develop a typology for the different ways AI is currently being used in podcasting in order to explore the anxieties around the use of artificial intelligence in the cultural industries as well as the everyday, and more mundane, impact AI is having on workflows, production capabilities and notions of creativity in the creative industries.