An Australian radio station has been hosting a popular segment with an AI-generated DJ, a fact that went unnoticed by listeners for several months, according to reports from the Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald. The program, Workdays with Thy, presents a four-hour playlist of hip hop, R&B, and pop music without disclosing that the voice of the host, Thy, is generated by artificial intelligence.
Workdays with Thy airs on CADA, a Sydney-based station owned by ARN Media. The company confirmed to the Financial Review that Thy’s voice was created using ElevenLabs, an AI voice generation tool. Interestingly, Thy’s vocal identity is modeled on a real employee from the company’s finance department.
Neither the website for CADA nor the show’s promotional materials reveal that the host is generated by artificial intelligence. The description of the show promotes music curated by experts, emphasizing the opportunity for listeners to discover trending songs before they hit the mainstream.
This occurrence is not isolated, as AI-generated media has seen increased acceptance without full transparency. In January, Microsoft introduced an AI-generated advertisement for its Surface products, which it has recently acknowledged.
According to the Financial Review, Workdays with Thy launched on CADA’s platform in November 2024 and has reportedly reached an audience of over 72,000 listeners. Teresa Lim, vice president of the Australian Association of Voice Actors, criticized ARN Media for not being transparent about the AI host, arguing that listeners have a right to know they are engaging with a synthetic entity rather than a real person.
ARN’s CEO, Ciaran Davis, expressed awareness of the complexities surrounding authenticity in media, stating, “What we’ve learned is the power of the announcers we have.”
Other radio stations have similarly explored incorporating AI technology. Notably, a Portland-based station and Sirius XM have engaged in projects utilizing artificial intelligence. Last year, a Polish radio station implemented AI hosts to replace journalists, an initiative it later retracted following public outcry.
