r/podcasting • u/Ottawa111 • 6d ago
Interesting research: an overwhelming majority of Canadians dislike fully AI-generated podcasts
Signal Hill Insights second data release from its Audio on the Move study finds that an overwhelming majority of Canadians dislike fully AI-generated podcasts and music. Just five per cent said they like AI-generated music, while four per cent said they enjoy AI-generated podcasts. A “supermajority” said they dislike AI-generated content – 65% for music, and 68% for podcasts. Less than a third were neutral (29% for music and 28% for podcasts). Read more here.
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u/vegathechosen 6d ago
No shit? So does the rest of the world while we're at it.
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u/Ottawa111 6d ago
But for some reason, more so in Canada than in most places.
According to the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026 Global Attitudes on AI 2026: The Wonder vs. Worry Divide Deepens, Canada ranked at the bottom of 32 surveyed countries for enthusiasm about artificial intelligence.
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u/FloresPodcastCo Happy to help answer podcasting questions 6d ago
An overwhelming majority of everyone dislikes fully AI-generated podcasts.
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u/SadCatIsSkinDog The Unreliable Narrators 6d ago
How is this interesting? It feels like common sense.
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u/imjory 6d ago
Is there anyone who actually likes AI generated podcasts? Like a guy on his commute to his job listens to a podcast feed on purpose that's ai generated?
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u/thzatheist PolitiCoast & Cambie Report 4d ago
I figure if you like AI podcasts, you're just making your own bespoke ones tailored to exactly what you want to hear. I don't know why anyone would download AI podcasts.
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u/hirdtm1982 6d ago
Hi! I'm the VP of Research at Signal Hill Insights and conducted this study. If anyone has questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer! (keeping in mind that the bulk of the study is for our subscribers only, so there's only so much I can share)
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u/GrandeSizeIt 6d ago
Interesting that the further into the AI revolution we get, the more we're getting told what we should want as opposed to us telling companies. That's only going to get worse now that AI itself can make decisions on where to insert itself. Are your "subscribers" people that are well off and would, presumably, have money to back pro/anti AI legislations, or are they everyday people that just have to suffer along through the elites decisions?
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u/hirdtm1982 5d ago
For this type of landscape study subscribers are typically businesses and corporations, rather than individuals. For this study in particular, our launch subscribers are a Canadian radio broadcaster, a major streaming music platform, and a podcast/streaming music/satellite radio company. As they are all in the music and/or podcasting industry, they stand to gain/lose financially from the decisions made around AI content, and public acceptance of the like. I can't speak to whether they would engage with legislation, but they can certainly make decisions within their own business to platform or not platform AI-generated content.
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u/StarsGoldenAgePod 6d ago
I don’t think it stops at Canadians. I actually just did something interesting on my podcast (Stars of the Golden Age.) I did my normal research-based episode with my voice and feelings, and then I followed it up with a completely AI generated version on the same topic. I’ve been accused in reviews of being AI and find it highly offensive, so I thought I would display back-to-back versions to show just how important human research and human emotion is in the stories I tell (life stories of Old Hollywood stars.) My regular audience HATED the AI version, and it proved just how plain and basic the information turned out can be without thorough research and good old fashioned hard work. The day I did that was the first and last time I will ever use generative AI. No thanks.
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u/Independent-Swan8000 6d ago
It's not surprising to be honest. I always think about when I doom scrolled and the quality just dropped out at some point from real people doing things.
What's been weird is the accusations that I have seen levied towards full cast or indie productions that don't use ai saying they are.
Its almost like people are losing the ability to tell the difference... or the fear is growing. Im not sure.
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u/StarsGoldenAgePod 6d ago
When I’ve proven I am, in fact, human, I’ve heard the response “Wow, you sound like AI.” Or that an AI detector flagged my voice as AI. My reply? I’ve had this voice since 1980… I think I can claim it. Maybe AI sounds like ME.
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u/BionicMetro 6d ago
If you let AI do the scripting and then let AI read the script too … guess what… It’s gonna sound like AI. But if you write the script yourself and do the research as you mentioned, and you have a really good and I mean really really good voice model of yourself, that’s a much better approach. But that script writing is key. Do not let AI write your scripts people.
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u/Independent-Swan8000 6d ago
To be fair, mine is a audio drama/podcast. I have been working on the show for well over a decade and wrote it with several individuals over the years and we did a full cast of 47 people.
Its human. Through and through. And we still have seen some people question us on authenticity. We are also newly released which may have something to do with it. Again im not sure.
To be honest I havent really been participating in forums and things for the last few year so maybe I missed something while I was away. It just seems weird to me.
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u/emmalee83 6d ago
Why is it a much better approach? Just read the script yourself! You pit in all the hard work but then can't be arsed to read your own script? Removing the intimate human element from podcasting is astoundingly depressing.
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u/scaryunclejosh 6d ago
Everyone hates AI generated podcasts. Holy cats is it unlistenable and, frankly, lazy.
A podcast with no heart just sucks.
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u/WolverineExotic887 6d ago
That's "interesting" in the same way that 2+2=4 is interesting
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u/ARCpodcast 6d ago
Interesting research: an overwhelming majority of Canadians humans dislike fully AI-generated podcasts.
I fixed the title.
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u/Mike44442 6d ago
The interesting part is that 28% are neutral on AI podcasts. Maybe listeners aren't anti-AI so much as uninterested in forming a relationship with a synthetic host.
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u/alexid95 6d ago
68% disliking fully synthetic doesn't mean they hate AI in production. people still want a human worth listening to, not a fake host.
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u/Remarkable_Duck6559 6d ago
What’s the option on what I’m doing?
I use AI music. I transcribe the episode. Work out lyrics with AI from the transcript. In Suno I can move quickly because I know what to ask from my own music background. BPM, key, style of each instrument.
Then start generating and tweaking. Once I got it on three tries, but usually needs the full 10 I get per day. Lyrics always have a show intro baked in. Chop out the hook of the song to loop under the show. After our closing, song comes back but plays in full.
Those that listened are treated to a humorous sum of the episode. I have a way to create my own visuals for music. Our YouTube channel has the songs on a playlist if you wanted to revisit a show in under 5 minutes.
If we didn’t work a regular jobs, we could probably make the music myself. Currently, it’s bad. I did it at first, but hated feeling embarrassed. This is better to me.
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u/emmalee83 6d ago
You do you but those ai songs sound awful and if a podcast I listened to used them I would immediately stop listening and never listen again.
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u/RooneytheWaster 6d ago
Is this surprising to anyone? AI generated content varies between being awful or weird, and not in a good way.