AUSTIN, TEXAS: 'The Joe Rogan AI Experience' is a kind of AI-generated fanfiction version of Joe Rogan's original podcast series 'The Joe Rogan Experience' that depicts simulated conversations between Rogan and his guests.
In its first episode, Rogan conversed with Open AI CEO Sam Altman about whether society should be concerned about fake AI content. He's heard saying, “How will we be able to tell what’s real and what’s not?” Given that the entire hour-long chat was generated by AI, the question was especially appropriate for the episode, as it quickly gained traction among Rogan's followers. Naturally, everyone is curious to know who might be behind this creative project. So, keep reading to find out about its creator.
Who was behind 'The Joe Rogan AI Experience' podcast?
It was revealed in an Interview with Verge that Hugo, who asked the portal to only use his first name to protect his identity, was behind 'The Joe Rogan AI Experience'. The creative director for a VFX studio and ad agency in Sydney, Australia, acknowledged that his simulated YouTube podcast is only for entertainment purposes and is not meant to pose a threat to the real Rogan or other podcasters. In his interview, he said, “This is purely fiction, just for fun, so don’t go around making your little TikToks and make the world believe I said things I never said."
Hugo first had the concept for 'The Joe Rogan AI Experience' back in February, when social media platforms were filled with discussions about ChatGPT. He had been keeping up with developments in AI during the previous year and had seen "a couple of YouTube videos about voice cloning" when the thought suddenly came to him. "What if I tried to generate a whole The Joe Rogan Experience podcast with ChatGPT and then managed to use one of those voice cloning platforms?” he told about his thoughts in the interview.
Was Hugo's AI project successful?
In the interview, Hugo also shared that while creating the first voice clone of Rogan was easy, he spent hours refining it to perfection in later episodes. Even then, there were times when his speakers sounded AI-like. It took a lot of effort to modify the script in a manner that the characters sounded like a typical human conversation.
'The Joe Rogan AI Experience's first episode has received close to half a million views (possibly as a result of Rogan tweeting about it), but subsequent episodes have seen a decline in viewers. So, the podcast doesn't stand ground when compared to AI remixes of songs by Drake and other artists, which have gained a lot of popularity. And it's still unclear whether people would genuinely prefer the imitations to the originals.
Moreover, there are other major causes for concern regarding the emergence of AI in podcasting. Any presenter, including Rogan, may be simulated to say something offensive, all thanks to digital forgeries. Hugo also claimed to already foretell how specific occupations in the VFX sector may be replaced by AI tools.
