Podcasting has always been about voices with something to say – storytellers, experts, communities, and individuals carving out a space to connect with listeners. But a new development reported in The Hollywood Reporter suggests a very different future.
An AI startup plans to churn out 5,000 shows and 3,000 episodes a week, all for around $1 per episode. The content is fully AI-generated – from scripts to voices – designed not for meaning but for scale, volume, and advertising dollars.
On the one hand, this demonstrates the extraordinary capability of generative AI. Producing that level of content with so little cost would have been unthinkable even a year or two ago. For marketers, the sheer scale might look like an opportunity to flood niches, capture keywords, and experiment with formats.
But here’s the rub: as a podcaster, I believe podcasting isn’t meant to be factory output. Its value has always come from its human dimension – trust, personality, and storytelling that connect with an audience.
Replacing that with attractive-looking AI personas that look like real people but don't actually exist, and algorithmic filler, risks undermining the very thing that made podcasts compelling in the first place – real human hosts and great stories.
Of course, not every AI-generated podcast is destined to be poor. Some productions are already impressively polished, delivering clear information, sharp editing, and voices that are increasingly hard to distinguish from human ones.
It may well be inevitable that AI content becomes a natural part of the podcasting landscape, just as it has in text and video. The question is less about whether it can be done, and more about whether it should be done without transparency.
Because here lies the real challenge: when an AI-generated host presents itself as if it were a real person – complete with a name, backstory, and tone of voice – it blurs the line between authenticity and artifice.
Listeners may connect emotionally with a voice they assume belongs to a human, when in fact it does not. That tension between technical capability and ethical clarity is what makes this shift so uncomfortable.
Imagine directories and platforms overwhelmed by AI slop. Listeners scrolling through endless shows that sound the same, devoid of real experience, relevance or insight. Discovery becomes harder, trust erodes, and creators who pour time and passion into their craft risk being drowned out by synthetic competition.
Don't Do This
This feels like a bad step in the evolution of podcasting. Innovation is welcome, but when the focus shifts from enriching the medium to exploiting it, we all lose – creators, listeners, and the credibility of podcasting as a whole.
What might help is stronger curation by platforms, clearer labelling of AI-generated content, and audiences actively seeking out creators who bring real voices and perspectives. Otherwise, podcasting risks heading down the same road as much of social media – dominated by quantity at the expense of quality.
Podcasting’s future does not have to be an either/or choice between human and algorithm. There is space for innovation, experimentation, and even synthetic creativity – provided it is honest about what it is.
But the heart of podcasting lies in connection, and connection comes from trust.
As long as audiences know who or what they are listening to, the medium can evolve without losing its soul. The responsibility now lies with creators, platforms, and listeners to ensure that in the rush for scale, we don’t abandon the very humanity that made podcasting matter in the first place.
