A Podcast Just For ME!
What if you could have a podcast tailored just for you i.e., news about the topics you're passionate about delivered directly to your podcasting inbox?
Remember how they used to say, "In the future, you will have a radio station that runs entirely for you?"
Well, the future is now.
I recently came across an interesting AI-based application called PocketPod which makes an entire #podcast for you, "right when you want them, on the topics and information you want." Yeah, it generates the script, the voices, the music - basically the entire episode for you and delivers it to a feed created exclusively for you.
Imagine that... A podcast with an audience of one - ME!
It is in limited access right now and I was lucky enough to be one of the first to test it out. Here's a link to the RSS feed of "S's news", which is the podcast it made for me:
(I didn't choose the name, BTW.)
These episodes were created on the basis of the topics I selected viz., Technology, Startups, Science, and Artificial Intelligence. Then it asked me to select "further topics to focus on" and I chose the following: AI, Gadgets, Tech Policy, Startup Lessons, Generative AI, Ethics in AI, AI Startups, Open Source AI, AI Research, Physics, Genetics, and Neuroscience.
And the result was this podcast named "S's News".
I can't change the name of the podcast yet. But I can change my interests, my topics, the weightage the topics are to be given in selecting the news.
Some observations:
- The feed delivers ~2 episodes everyday - the first is the standard daily edition and the second is an extended cut.
- The overall format and feel is similar to NPR's "Up First"
- It is structured like a typical #news broadcast/podcast - 3 headlines followed by more detailed reporting by a 'correspondent'.
- ALL voices - hosts, reporters, correspondents - are AI-generated.
- The spoken sentences have BREATHS at appropriate places!!!
Honestly, it is incredible and somewhat unnerving!
No, I'm NOT saying it will replace #radio or #podcasts.
But it will replace... something. I don't know what that something is.
The makers of #PocketPod, I feel like they have the right direction but not quite the right destination at the moment. And so, this idea (and perhaps this company) will evolve.
And I'm very curious to see what the evolution will eventually yield...