(By Cameron Coats) I saw a quote on Instagram the other day that refuses to leave my mind. The quote, attributed to author Joanna Maciejewska, is, “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”
In a recent Op-Ed for The Guardian, Daniel Kehlmann described a conversation with a Hollywood screenwriter friend about an advanced screenplay AI still in development. Kehlmann’s friend tested the AI by describing a miniseries – characters, plot, and atmosphere – and within minutes, the AI produced all the episodes, fully written and ready for production. The result was smart, targeted, witty, and creative. The screenwriter’s ultimate takeaway from the experience?
“I have three years left. Maybe five if I’m lucky.”
The rise of ChatGPT and the Large Language Model have directly correlated to a rising sense of unease among many creatives in and out of radio, which is, in my eyes, completely justified. I deeply love this industry, but we haven’t exactly proven we will always protect the artistry of our business when given the choice over cost.
Jacobs Media’s just-released AQ6 data shows 77% of air talent are worried AI will lead to on-air jobs being lost. That’s up 1% from last year. There’s a reason why agents and unions are building protective clauses into the contracts of talent and workers to shield them from bad-faith uses of generative AI.
Some days it feels like the industries safest from AI replacements are ditch diggers and plumbers.
During my Production Director days, if someone had given me the choice of having an AI bot to take care of affidavits or one to write complete commercials for me, I would have chosen affidavits in a heartbeat. (Some have the “dead air” dreams. Me? Endless affidavit nightmares.) They’re important, but not what I joined radio to do. I would have happily traded all the time I spent selecting (Y) for time to think of new copy that made my AEs nervous.
It’s only a matter of time until a group okays an AI-generated spec spot to go straight to air after the client says yes to the idea. And I don’t blame the companies that create those products for the loss – the blame would lay on those that would take the final shortcut. The same goes for air talent. There’s a difference between, “We can’t afford a hire,” and, “Why should we pay for a hire?”
Why should I pay my hard-earned money to go see the latest blockbuster in a movie theater, when I can just pirate it on my computer at home? Well, not only is it a higher quality experience for the audience, but it supports the entire chain that creates that content in the first place.
Am I anti-AI? Not at all. There are phenomenal ways AI assists creatives – assists being the keyword. I simply think it would be a travesty if we all looked up from our prompt boxes ten years from now and realized we had left the fun parts of radio up to a machine. Creating a good commercial is fun. Hitting post is fun. The humanity of radio is fun.
We shouldn’t fear AI, but we should all fear the day we choose to completely automate the creative process.
Cameron Coats is the Online Editor for Radio Ink.
