The AI Experiment That Turned Into a Real PR DISASTER
Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
Radio Krakow hit pause on their AI experiment that had led to them dismissing their journalists.
It seemed like a reasonable thing to do, implement a three-month trial with the intention of engaging a younger audience.
The surprise isn’t that it didn’t work. The surprise is that the leadership of the station were surprised about the backlash and felt they had to stop the experiment in their tracks.
It’s all part of the masterplan?
The editor of the station, Marcin Pulit, claimed it was all part of a grand plan to spark a debate about artificial intelligence.
It sure sparked a debate, but the public were almost entirely negative against the experiment. People didn’t marvel about the AI technology and questioned the validity of the idea and removing the human element from the experience.
Pulit claimed to be shocked by the negativity, stating:
“surprised by the level of emotion that accompanied this experiment, attributing to us non-existent intentions and actions, harsh judgments formulated on the basis of false reports.”
which means that Radio Krakow were…surprised that replacing full-time employees with AI would cause a backlash.
It would seem this is another example of a leadership team so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
lnterviews with the vampire
The station broadcast an “interview” conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who died in 2012. The station had also been planning an interview with Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, who died in 1935, before the experiment was unceremoniously pulled.
I think it isn’t surprising that a petition gathered more than 23,000 signatures lambasting the idea that experienced employees in the creative industry can (and are) replaced by machines.
What’s particularly ironic here is the “debate” this radio station hoped to foster about AI ended up being a debate about bad management. AI isn’t inherently evil, but if you’re going to use it to replace real jobs, you’d better have a solid plan, and an even better PR team.
Warning for software development
As a software developer, I’ve been in rooms where people swear by tech that makes no sense just because it’s trendy. It’s like using a new technology because someone on Twitter said it was cool. Pro tip: Trends don’t fix bad strategy.
So, here’s my advice if you are thinking about replacing human software developers with AI: don’t. Or at least, think twice. Because if you fail, the Internet will remind you forever, and your “sparked debate” might just be people questioning your competency. Even large companies will not survive this type of backlash, as I’m sure we will see in the future.
Conclusion
The Radio Krakow experiment serves as a cautionary tale about the hasty adoption of AI at the expense of human talent. It highlights the importance of understanding not just the technical potential of AI, but also its societal implications. Replacing humans with machines is not just a way of reducing cost, it’s an ethical decision with real-world consequences.
For software developers, this is a glimpse into the challenges we may face as automation advances. It’s a reminder to question whether new technologies are solving real problems or creating new ones. The debate isn’t just about technology; it’s about values, strategy, and the role of humanity in an increasingly automated world.
If we don’t address these questions now, we risk repeating Radio Krakow’s mistakes, but on a much larger scale.