Don't Support Fake Wine Podcasts
The rise of AI-generated podcasts is coming for wine
Is Elizabeth Schneider (Wine For Normal People) unnecessary? Are Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zach Geballe of the VinePair podcast superfluous? Can we forget about Levi Dalton (I’ll Drink to That)?
All of these people are, after all, human beings. Their voices fluctuate when they speak about wine or to wine people on their popular podcasts. They occasionally descend into the use of “um” when they speak into the microphone. Plus, they have opinions—a totally human trait.
These problems aren’t apparent when you listen to Professor Barnaby Ellison Thatch, who podcasts about Bourbon, Clair Delish, who expounds on Tequila on her podcast, or Vivian Steele, who delivers insights into mocktails. What sets these podcasters apart from the old school wine personalities and podcasters listed above is that they have no soul.
THE FAKE PODCAST COMPANY
By this I mean, well, exactly that. These drinks personalities are creations of Inception Point AI, which is behind Quiet Please Podcast Network. Altogether, more than 5,000 podcasts have been produced and released by the Quiet Please Podcast Network that include productions on every manner of subject, including tequila, bourbon, and mocktails and all hosted by fake people. Wine is surely next. So keep a lookout for Henry McVinestick podcasting about our favorite subject.
According to a recent article in Hollywood Reporter:
Inception Point AI already has more than 5,000 shows across its Quiet Please Podcast Network and produces more than 3,000 episodes a week. Collectively, the network has seen 10 million downloads since September 2023. It takes about an hour to create an episode, from coming up with the idea to getting it out in the world.
The company is able to produce each episode for $1 or less, depending on length and complexity, and attach programmatic advertising to it. This generally means that if about 20 people listen to that episode, the company made a profit on that episode, without factoring in overhead.
There is no stopping the rise of fake people delivering perfectly enunciated words using contrived accents any more than we can expect to stop the use of artificial colors and flavoring in food. And yes, it’s coming for wine. Elizabeth, Levi, Adam, Joanna and Zach will be competing with the flood of contrived content created by fake voices. It’s impossible to predict who will win this contest.
AVOIDING PROMOTION OF FAKE WINE CONTENT
In the course of creating THE SPILL, a free daily newsletter that curates the best wine content on the web, I peruse articles, podcasts, and videos from hundreds of sources I monitor, which grows daily. What I’m looking for is compelling content that is educational, fun, well-written, and so useful that subscribers will enjoy it. I’m also looking for AI-generated content because I simply don’t want to promote it. More importantly, I don’t want to undermine the actual human beings who respect their readers and listeners and who are incapable of suppressing the best thing about them: they have human proclivities.