Comment on Column | No time to read? Google’s new AI will turn anything into a podcast
andrew_s@piefed.social 1 month ago
I know all the cool kids hate on AI, but as someone out of the loop, that 'podcast' is really impressive. I guess it speaks to how a influential certain style of podcasting is (from the likes of NPR) that a machine can copy it the same as other humans do.
As for the embedded link, this works for me (and others on the same site as me), but it might not for others:
I think that it is impressive, but not necessarily that useful? In particular, you can’t really trust what they’re saying to be accurate so it doesn’t actually give you that much usable information.
Very cool, but I’m not sure what I would actually use it for.
This is just fancy transcription, the only thing you can’t trust it to be saying is the article itself…
No, the podcast can absolutely missrepresent the thing that it’s sumarizing. The podcast also adds commentary, and I think it’s especially this commentary that I find unreliable.
Ah, if it also adds commentary then sure. When I tested it out a few times it was just retelling the articles verbatim.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 month ago
I don’t know that it’s influential so much as formulaic. It’s been working for them for decades. And without it, we’d never have gotten Schweddy Balls, and that’s a worse timeline.
For real fun, submit your resume (that shit’s already all over online; Google can have it) and listen to NPR hosts take 7 minutes to describe your career arc.