Artificial intelligence in sound narrative. A case study

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly part of the journalistic processes and routines of many media. Throughout the world, there are examples of both written and audio-visual journalism that suggest that very soon AI will be an integral part of our work. The following research is part of the Audio-visual Communication and Culture research group of the Private Technical University of Loja, Ecuador. The project we have designed is called “Tinned Stories”. These are brief podcasts in which, as well as the stories, both natural and artificial actors are involved. The aim of the research was to determine from the series “Tinned Stories” the influence that artificial intelligence, specifically TTS robotics, can exert within the sound narrative. The method used to obtain data on the strength of the proposition was both qualitative and quantitative. On the one hand, a survey was applied to Communication students studying radio and new technologies, with two main questions: “What feelings do you experience listening to this sound production that includes robot voices?”, and “In which radio genres do you see its application as relevant?”. The research was complemented with interviews with international experts in the field of sound production. In conclusion, we can observe that people enjoy this type of production, even when they know there are artificial voices involved. They also said they felt indifferent to the voices, or even that the voices distracted or bothered them. Some of the experts also pointed out that AI is growing and developing algorithms that do unimaginable things. They see its use as part of the future of sound production.