Australian radio station under fire for using AI host for 6 months without informing listeners

An Australian radio station is facing criticism after it was revealed that a host on air for the past six months was not a real person, but an AI-generated voice, according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Secret AI host uncovered

CADA, a station under the Australian Radio Network (ARN) broadcasting in Sydney and via the iHeartRadio app, had been airing a programme called Workdays with Thy. The show, which played music for four hours daily from Monday to Friday, featured a seemingly human presenter named “Thy”.

However, according to the outlet, it never disclosed that Thy was an AI voice created using technology from ElevenLabs, a voice-cloning software company.

The truth surfaced when Sydney-based writer Stephanie Coombes questioned Thy's identity. In a blog post earlier this month, Coombes wrote: “What is Thy’s last name? Who is she? Where did she come from? There is no biography, or further information about the woman who is supposedly presenting this show.” Her suspicions led to an audio analysis that revealed identical voice patterns in repeated phrases like “old school”.

‘Just code and vibes’

As per a report by Independent, following the revelation, ARN project leader Fayed Tohme acknowledged in a now-deleted LinkedIn post that Thy was indeed an AI creation. “No mic, no studio, just code and vibes,” he wrote. “An experiment by ARN and ElevenLabs that’s fluently pushing the boundaries of what ‘live radio’ even means.”

Tohme also claimed that despite being artificial, Thy “sounds real” and “has real fans”.

Backlash over lack of transparency

While there are currently no Australian regulations specifically banning the use of AI in broadcast media, the lack of disclosure has drawn backlash from within the industry.

“They should have been upfront and completely honest, disclosing that the radio host was an AI,” said Teresa Lim, vice president of the Australian Association of Voice Actors, in a statement to Mediaweek. “People have been deceived into thinking it’s a real person because there’s no AI labelling.”

ARN responds

In response to the controversy, ARN stated: “We’ve been trialling AI audio tools on CADA using the voice of Thy, an ARN team member.”

The network added, “This is a space being explored by broadcasters globally, and while the trial has offered valuable insights, it’s also reinforced the unique value that personalities bring to creating truly compelling content.”