Wagner James Au / New World Notes

What you’re watching above looks like a podcast narrated by a chill Brit called Cliff Knotes, in an episode devoted to Second Life. But here’s the thing: The podcaster is AI generated, and the content that "Cliff" is discussing was pulled completely from Wikipedia. 

This is Wikéo, a new YouTube channel and site which converts Wikipedia entries into bite-sized podcasts with various AI narrators. In full disclosure, it’s part of a project I’m consulting on (more on that later) but I have no input on Wikéo itself – other than challenging the co-designer, Clifford Champion, to generate these episodes about Second Life.

"Wikipedia is not perfect, but the value it’s brought to civilization is immense,” Champion tells me, describing his inspiration for Wikéo, “an amazing concentration of knowledge." 

The problem, as he sees it: Though Wikipedia has grown ever more massive, most people using the Internet tend to prefer video and podcasts to reading. "AI is an opportunity to bridge that gap, to bridge what I call the format gap."

Five different foundation models go into activating the voices, with 8 different “shows” all delivering the same information from Wikipedia. He tells me Hugo the Honey Badger (yes, below) is the most popular.

To deal with controversial or highly sensitive topics (the Holocaust, serial killers, etc.) Wikéo has a scoring system which flags hot button stories, so an upcoming episode can be human-reviewed first. One option is to only publish episodes on extreme topics through “Professor Alexei”, Wikéo’s dry, highly academic-themed AI – that way, the podcast is informative without seeming emotionally manipulative. 

An avid podcast listener himself, Clifford spent a lot of time analyzing what makes for an engaging show – not just the personality of the host and the topics covered, but the nuances of vibe and point of view. 

Google, it should be said, has a variation of this podcast feature on its AI platform, but is offered more as a tool for researchers. Wikéo, Clifford tells me, is meant to be more of a media play:

“We're curating the content for you. If you already listen to podcasts, it's as simple as subscribing.”

And no, this isn’t meant to “replace” human podcasters:

“Have you ever unsubscribed from a podcast, or skipped a show?” as he puts it. “You do if it doesn't interest you — you value choice.” He believes AI-generated podcasts will simply stand alongside the existing library of human-driven ones.

Do listeners even know these podcast shows are AI-generated? Judging by the YouTube channel’s comments, Clifford estimates only about 30% of listeners are noticing and complaining about the artificial provenance. 

Launched earlier this year with little promotion, the YouTube channel already has nearly 40,000 subscribers, mostly gained through organic growth.

"I'm a bit of a futurist,” he says, “It's inevitable people will interact with AI as human beings. But right now, that concept is very divisive." He guesses AI is currently in an Uncanny Valley state, similar to early stages of “realistic” avatars in Second Life and other virtual worlds. But in 5 to 30 years from now, he suspects people will accept AI in various contexts, such as newscasting and teaching.

 "I'm comfortable pushing the limits here,” as he puts it, “and sharing knowledge is worthwhile."

And the demand seems inexhaustible: Last year (for the first time), more than 51% of the US said they listen to a podcast. "People have run out of additional hours to consume media that requires your visual attention and eyeballs." He hopes AI can help grow the longtail and deliver educational value through our ears. 

"The goal of Wikéo,” as Champion puts it, “is to not leave knowledge behind for the next generation of consumers."

Future iterations of Wikéo will incorporate text-to-performance technology from Incantor AI – a startup I’m currently consulting with – built on an AI model that enables the creation of new characters with finely tuned, emotionally resonant voices. (Watch above.)

“Voice has its greatest impact not just from the literal words, but often more importantly from the delivery, tone, and feeling,” as Cliff puts it. However, this doesn’t mean humanity will be left behind – in the demo video above, “Sophia” and “Gabriel” are composites created from the voice data of two real humans actors; the underlying AI model tracks their contributions to any final product, so that they can be credited and compensated.

There’s a weird coincidence with Clifford Champion demonstrating Wikéo with entries about Second Life, by the way: Back in 2007, he actually worked on the virtual world’s back-end:

“I was at Havok at the time,” Champion explains, “so Linden Lab hired Havok (and enlisted me) to solve their server side physics capacity. goal: let people's creativity remain unhindered, without crashing the servers.” 

Now, hopefully, Wikéo can help people’s knowledge acquisition go unhindered without crashing against their attention span.