A Sydney radio station has come under fire for using an AI-generated host without disclosing it to listeners.
Last week, Stephanie Coombes from The Carpet received a tip-off that CADA, a Sydney-based radio station owned by the Australian Radio Network (ARN), had created an AI avatar to present a four-hour weekday show broadcast to Western Sydney and available on the iHeartRadio app.
The show is called Workdays with Thy and features a host named Thy who has been presenting the show since November 2024. Unlike the bios of other presenters on CADA, Thy seemingly lacks a last name, description or social media presence.
According to the CADA official website, Thy can be heard from 11am to 3pm each weekday.
“Every weekday from 11am to 3pm while you are at work, driving around, doing the commute on public transport or at uni, Thy will be playing you the hottest tracks from around the world,” the show’s description reads.
“Curated by our music experts, these are the songs that are charting or on the cusp of blowing up — hear it first with Thy so you can boast to your friends and say you were all over it first. We’re talking the newest in Hip Hop, R&B but as well as the best in Pop and Dance.”
While initial reports speculated that Thy was AI-generated, the theories were later confirmed by a spokesperson for ARN.
“We’ve been trialling AI audio tools on CADA, using the voice of Thy, an ARN team member,” the spokesperson said.
“This is a space being explored by broadcasters globally, and the trial has offered valuable insights.”
The spokesperson also noted that the trial highlighted “the power of real personalities in driving compelling content”.
Although it feels icky that ARN didn’t disclose that Thy was AI-generated, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, there is no legislation that requires the disclosure of AI use in broadcast content.
Thy isn’t the first AI-generated radio host. Back in 2023, Disrupt Radio launched an AI newsreader named Debbie Disrupt. That same year, Spotify introduced an AI DJ called X. However, in both cases, the use of AI was clearly labelled.
While many believe the backlash could have been prevented by ARN simply being upfront about the AI-generated DJ, the positioning of Thy as a young woman of colour has been criticised by initial reports and the wider public.
“I looked through the host lineup for KIIS, GOLD and CADA — ARN’s three major radio brands which broadcast around the country” wrote Coombes in her initial report.
“Across nine stations, it seems that there’s only one person who outwardly presents as diverse”.
In an interview with Mediaweek, Vice President of the Australian Association of Voice Actors Teresa Lim slammed ARN for the decision, calling it an “insult” to the Asian broadcasting community, especially in light of how hard Asian women have fought for more representation in Aussie media landscapes.
“If it is true that it’s four blokes who are actually posing as her online, then that is a real insult to the Asian broadcasting community… this feels like a massive step back,” she told the publication, describing the move as “tokenistic”.
“I do wonder why, when these blokes sat down and decided to create a fake personality, did they make her Asian? Was that a specific choice to look diverse without doing anything?”
These sentiments were echoed by culture writer and content creator Maggie Zhou, who described the whole situation as “cooked”.
“If that doesn’t prove how dire the Australian media landscape is, then I don’t know what will,” Maggie said on TikTok.
“We have so many talented people, so many talented Asian women who want to be in the space but instead they’re handing that valuable real estate over to a bot.”
As ARN is one of the largest audio entertainment companies in Australia, it’s disappointing to see AI used in a coveted position that could be given to a real woman of colour trying to make it in the difficult Aussie media landscape.
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