Tuned in to the CKRM-620 Regina midnight News Saturday night. First thing that I noticed was that the Canadian Press News was delayed to allow the last Country song of the hour to finish.
But the big surprise was what came immediately after. It was called A.I. Weather. Assuming it means what I think it does, this marks the first time that I knowingly heard a voice generated by Artificial Intelligence. I would normally have already heard lots of them but I have my sound turned off on Facebook.
Listening, I could not hear anything that would have tipped me off to it being an A.I.-generated voice. And, yes, the signal was strong and clear into Edmonton.
It occurs to me that we have now come full circle. In the late 1960s, KOL-FM Seattle, wanting to be honest with their audience, clearly indicated when they were automated by having Production Manager, Terry McManus, create what sounded like a computer-generated voice of that era, for his voice track of music intros and extras, and community announcements. The voice would identify itself as "The Computer".