UAE-based Mirchi has launched what it believes is the world’s first AI presenter on a commercial radio station. The radio station said the technology “is all set to change the way we listen to radio”.
The radio presenter named AIRAH (Artificial Intelligence Radio Host) hosted a show named Mirchi on AI, covering technology and social media topics. The station said it was already talking to a few brands about “conceptualizing something unique”.
AIRAH is based on voice cloning technology powered by Deepsync Technologies and follows a text-to-speech format.
Preeti Phalke, Content Director at 102.4 Mirchi, said: “Radio as we know it, has evolved from SW, MW to FM in the past few decades providing entertainment in all formats across languages. From recorded to live radio, the industry has seen a 360-degree change in its approach towards entertainment”.
The UAE has been a breeding ground for many world firsts and has been supportive of future-ready innovations like robot deliveries and solar-powered energy plants.
AIRAH’s will be a special programming show that will be available for three months. It operates as a text-to-speech AI where a text is generated by chat GTP. The voice is then generated by another AI.
But so far, Mirchi doesn’t allow AI to play or select music to play on air. “As a radio station we pre-select the music that is played on-air so no it doesn’t select the music,” brand manager Trena Doris told Campaign Middle East.
Talking about the coverage the station has received, she added: “We’ve received a lot of questions on this replacing traditional radio jocks, but we would like to repeat that this is not the case and nothing can replace the live and real-time interactions that we share with our listeners”.
