The company behind the creation of Thy, the artificial intelligence voice 'presenter' featured on ARN's platform, has issued a response following public criticism regarding the on-air use of AI technology. The statement was quietly released on the Anzac Day public holiday through the ElevenLabs platform, the very voice technology provider used in developing Thy.
The company clarified that Thy was created using ElevenLabs' AI voice technology and is based on the voice of an ARN Media employee who works in the finance department and gave her consent for the voice to be used. "Within an hour of uploading the voice samples, the synthetic version was live," the statement confirmed.
This marks the first official public acknowledgement of the origin of Thy’s voice following significant backlash over the AI presenter's debut and ARN's initial lack of transparency regarding its creation. Thy’s launch sparked an industry-wide conversation around key issues including diversity, consent, and the expanding role of AI in creative audio settings. Listeners had observed that Thy's voice and accent resembled that of a young Asian woman, but ARN had not provided any formal explanations at the time.
However, some critical questions remain unanswered. Mediaweek has raised concerns about whether the employee whose voice was utilised received any payment for her participation, and how ARN's choice of both voice and image aligns with the company’s diversity and inclusion practices. ARN has yet to respond publicly on these matters.
In positioning Thy as part of a creative experiment, the company described the project as exploring “new forms of creative expression” through artificial intelligence. It was emphasised that Thy is “not replacing people,” but rather representing an effort to develop more personalised, automated listening experiences. Currently, ARN's digital station CADA reportedly reaches around 160,000 listeners, with Thy providing a “fully-automated listening experience, powered by our Text to Speech and voice cloning tools.” The statement noted that the initiative forms part of ARN’s work to "make radio more personal, without losing what makes it compelling."
The release echoed language from an earlier post by Fayed Tohme, a digital, product and technology leader at ARN, who had described the project as an experiment in personalisation and AI-driven radio engagement. This earlier comment on LinkedIn was subsequently deleted.
Furthermore, the company situated its AI project within a broader industry context, mentioning other players such as Audacy, which uses AI to generate advertisements and podcasts, as well as companies like Futuri, SuperHiFi, and Radio.Cloud that are developing full-stack automation tools for radio stations. The statement noted that the number of use cases for AI in audio continues to grow.
Despite efforts to frame Thy's introduction as a creative innovation, scrutiny remains high regarding transparency. For many media and advertising professionals, understanding how synthetic voices are selected, compensated, and visually represented is considered an essential component of ethical and inclusive AI deployment. As the conversation continues, these issues loom as important considerations for the future of AI in media.
Source: Noah Wire Services