Views from the studio… Artificial voices in a human world

Welcome to the first in a series of monthly articles from voice-over Greg Marston…

Everybody’s talking about AI……well, most everybody I know anyway.

The line of business I work in is one of many being threatened with extinction, as are certain aspects and areas of the radio industry.

Sure, that’s a bold, tough-sounding line, and it might not happen within a short space of time.

But the reality is, the better AI gets at replicating the human voice, the more people who make a living out of using their voice are likely to be replaced.

Is this something that’s actually coming down the pipeline – or just the way things are looking, now?

I’m Greg Marston, a voiceover/actor and once-upon-a-time radio presenter, producer, writer, host, anchor and journalist with some 45+ years experience in broadcasting, and I encounter AI-related concerns and challenges on an almost daily basis.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary definition, ‘artificial’ is something: ‘made by people, often as a copy of something natural’.

There’s nothing ‘natural’ about AI, so does that mean Artificial Intelligence, which was made by humans in the first place is, therefore, doubly artificial?

You can read more about my thoughts on such matters in my website blog.

Interestingly, given the industry I work in, I am not against AI as such – only when it replaces people and their jobs (which it’s doing. Every. Single. Day. All around the world). 

It purports to make life easier, less stressful, and helps us to become even more connected with one another and what’s going on around us. Yet, in many ways, it’s actually making things more divisive, with AI slop, fake news and misinformation cluttering the socials as well as in real life.

Which raises another concern – just what constitutes ‘real’ life if so much of what we encounter online every day is manufactured and, in many instances, fabricated?

Given this is an article written for RadioToday, I wonder how many reading it know whether or not the ‘voices’ heard on any radio station – from the smallest, most humble Hospital or Community Network through to the National broadcasters – are in fact still real as opposed to AI generated.

And, perhaps more importantly, have the AI voices put the real voices out of a job?

Fact: station imaging and branding (something I used to do a lot of ‘back-in-the-day’) is starting to be generated as opposed to voiced, as are station idents and many short news and weather bulletins.

Do we know this for sure? Do we care? Is not a faultless, non-fluffed report, impeccably read with no errors, better than one delivered with a few fumbles and stumbles? Or does this take away from the human-ness of such features?

And don’t get me started about telephone ‘on-hold’ messages.

But I would be interested to hear your thoughts on whether this slow but sure, let’s call it ‘take-over’, is something you can hear and care about, or whether it’s what many are referring to as ‘progress’.

This article was not re-written, edited or checked using any form of AI!

Greg Marston started out as a radio presenter behind the first of many microphones in 1979. For the past 30 years, he’s remained there as a professional voiceover artist.

Find out more about him and his nearly half-century career by visiting gregmarston.com or connect with Greg on LinkedIn.