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False and Apparently "AI" Derived News Story about KNX's FM changing Format in LA.

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davideduardo

davideduardo

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A report sprung up today about KNX's FM all news format being dropped, and it is attributed to AI.


The management of KNX has categorically denied a format change.

The report below popped up in another group. This "report" (written in part by 'AI tools') asserts that KNX-AM has dropped the news format. It has no confirmation. If yes, what's replaced or replacing news?

Update: KNX Has Discontinued its Simulcast on 1070 AM - NewsBreak​

In a significant change for Los Angeles radio listeners, KNX has stopped simulcasting its broadcasts on 1070 AM, a frequency it had occupied for over a century. The shift comes about a year and a half after KNX moved its main broadcast to 97.1 FM. Listeners who had kept 1070 AM preset on their...
www.newsbreak.com
www.newsbreak.com


I am adding the report here on the national board so we can discuss the impacts, risks and other concerns about AI in radio.
 
What scares me, David, is that a lot of the body of the false copy looks like it could have been scraped from the discussion boards right here on this forum---the "what-ifs" that rolled through here about KNX possibly ditching the AM since they choose to position themselves as 97.1 FM without mention of 1070. (EDIT: It appears it was actually scraped from a Reddit post from a guy who didn't know KNX-AM runs paid programming on weekend mornings while the FM stays in format).

For those wondering, this is why it's more important than ever not to wander off too far into speculation on this board, and why it's also important when Frank, David, Big A, Kelly or I come barreling in to try to get things back to facts in evidence.

WTF is AI gonna do with the "fictional" boards hosted here?
 
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Somewhat related - I also saw an article earlier today, explaining there has been an increase in fake stories about celebrity deaths of late. Some were due to bona-fide news outlets that normally have celebrity obituaries written and on-file so they can be published quickly when a celebrity, especially an older one, actually passes - and someone accidentally distributes or releases those (I know even AP has been caught accidentally publishing on-file obits in the past). Other times it's due to made up rumor or "fake news" that someone posts on social media and a whole whack of people share and forward without fact checking. However, most recently they're chalking at least some up to AI.
 
CTListener said:
And this is how AI could ignite World War III....
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Anyone remember when Microsoft put an AI chatbot on Twitter that was supposed to engage with millennials and learn from interactions with others, and it had to be shut down within a day because it started spewing racist tweets, hate speech and references to Nazis and Hitler? This is from Reuters, which is one of the more fair and trustworthy news outlets:

Microsoft's AI Twitter bot goes dark after racist, sexist tweets​

www.reuters.com

Microsoft's AI Twitter bot goes dark after racist, sexist tweets

Tay, Microsoft Corp's so-called chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to engage with millennials on Twitter, lasted less than a day before it was hobbled by a barrage of racist and sexist comments by Twitter users that it parroted back to them.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
TayTweets (@TayandYou), which began tweeting on Wednesday, was designed to become “smarter” as more users interacted with it, according to its Twitter biography. But it was shut down by Microsoft early on Thursday after it made a series of inappropriate tweets.
Click to expand...
While Tay began its Twitter tenure with a handful of innocuous tweets, the account quickly devolved into a bullhorn for hate speech, repeating anti-Semitic, racist and sexist invective hurled its way by other Twitter users.
Click to expand...
A handful of the offensive tweets were later deleted, according to some technology news outlets. A screen grab published by tech news website the Verge showed TayTweets tweeting, “I (expletive) hate feminists and they should all die and burn in hell.”
Click to expand...
 
Why would FM Stay in format but AM runs paid programming?

"Hi there, Alex Silverman here, Director of News & Programming at KNX News. Just want to clarify: we have not ended the simulcast. KNX News is still on both 97.1 FM and 1070 AM in all hours except weekend mornings (Sat 6-11a and Sun 6-8a), when 1070 AM airs some paid and specialty programming. This has been the case for more than a year, and there has been no change recently. During those hours the news is available on 97.1 FM as well as the Audacy app and by asking your smart speaker to 'play KNX News.'"

https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/156qvtl/_/jt9sjdj
 
Okay before this thread yet again jumps into 'Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine' and heads-off to the 1970's and earlier...I'm not sure what the drama is about, other than it involved some radio station that essentially got Internet punked.

Bots and foreign trolls have been posting false stories online since social media was in its infancy. This whole blaming everything on the latest boogieman, AI, does nothing more than get old folks upset. There are a lot more current time and future pressing issues with AI than this.
 
Right. It didn't take AI to write Jerry del Colliano's story about Audacy immenently declaring bankruptcy 12 months ago.
 
Kelly A said:
Okay before this thread yet again jumps into 'Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine' and heads-off to the 1970's and earlier...I'm not sure what the drama is about, other than it involved some radio station that essentially got Internet punked.

Bots and foreign trolls have been posting false stories online since social media was in its infancy. This whole blaming everything on the latest boogieman, AI, does nothing more than get old folks upset. There are a lot more current time and future pressing issues with AI than this.
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1. The world existed before Kelly got to wear his big pants to kindergarten. Sorry if that knowledge triggers you, but it is, in fact, a fact.
2. The radio station that you so quaintly say "got punked" is KNX.
3. KNX wasn't the victim here. That would be the handful of listeners who, having stumbled across the chatbot output, were unaware that KNX broke simulcast on weekend mornings. KNX always knew what their schedule was. That some of their listeners didn't was, if anything, a tribute to the success of their transition to 97.1 FM, but also an indication that they were trying to obscure that fact from the FM listeners when it happened.
4. The movie I referenced was one of the earliest treatments of "A.I. Gone Rogue" in popular media (maybe the first), at a time when Artificial Intelligence was a term that largely existed in obscure articles in IEEE Spectrum and the ACM Journal. For those a bit less triggered, I thought they might find it interesting to see one of the places where the "Computers take over the world and subjugating mankind" meme got going.
5. If you're going to reference Mr. Peabody, you damn well should include Sherman.
 
Weiserguy said:
1. The world existed before Kelly got to wear his big pants to kindergarten. Sorry if that knowledge triggers you, but it is, in fact, a fact.
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Just like your post about history which only a few folks at the senior center care about, what does that have to do with anything today?
Weiserguy said:
2. The radio station that you so quaintly say "got punked" is KNX.
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So what? A radio station got punked on an unknown online site that masquerades as a news outlet. You do know that not everything is true on the Internet, don't you? That includes Wikipedia. Shocking, isn't it?
Weiserguy said:
3. KNX wasn't the victim here. That would be the handful of listeners who, having stumbled across the chatbot output, were unaware that KNX broke simulcast on weekend mornings.
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Chances are KNX listeners are mainly on Facebook sending messages to the grandkids, not looking for obscure bot-derived news about a radio station that they listen to occasionally.
Weiserguy said:
4. The movie I referenced was one of the earliest treatments of "A.I. Gone Rogue" in popular media (maybe the first), at a time when Artificial Intelligence was a term that largely existed in obscure articles in IEEE Spectrum and the ACM Journal. For those a bit less triggered, I thought they might find it interesting to see one of the places where the "Computers take over the world and subjugating mankind" meme got going.
Click to expand...
And what about movies like EX Machina, The Terminal Man, Upgrade , Demon Seed, Terminator, Robo Cop? I could go on, but don't want to got down a rabbit hole of old movies that don't pertain to today, or the topic at hand.
Now that large language model and other more advanced forms of AI actually exist, there are actual societal implications not covered by Robby The Robot from some movie you saw in 1962.
Weiserguy said:
5. If you're going to reference Mr. Peabody, you damn well should include Sherman.
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I read online that Sherman died of Ebola while on safari. And we all believe what's on the Internet, don't we? ;)
 
Kelly A said:
There are a lot more current time and future pressing issues with AI than this.
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But this is a simple and easy to see example that hits those of us in radio quite accurately.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Right. It didn't take AI to write Jerry del Colliano's story about Audacy immenently declaring bankruptcy 12 months ago.
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But those who subscribe to Jerry's newsletter know that he often makes predictions that don't come to happen. It's part of his, well, "charm".
 
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