Meet AI Ashley, Portland’s new artificial intelligence DJ

  • The software was developed using the voice of Ashley Elzinga, a Portland DJ
  • Elzinga said developing the technology was a laborious process
  • Elzinga: The AI "wanted to know the person behind the voice"

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(NewsNation) — A Portland radio station is launching a first-of-its-kind AI radio personality named AI Ashley.

“You can decide what she’s going to say. So you can write a script and feed it into the software and then it says it out so you can decide how you want it to be. One of the examples is having AI Ashley become the ‘bad one’ and having me be sort of the ‘good one,'” said Ashley Elzinga.

Ashley “Z” Elzinga, the voice behind AI Ashley, joined “NewsNation Prime” to share her story, saying developing the technology was an extensive process.

“The first time we were just reading scripts, and it didn’t want to be read scripts. It wanted to find out who I was. It wanted to know the person behind the voice,” Elzinga said. “Finally, it took that recording and it understood my personality, understood how I speak and then it’s just developing itself from there.”

Elzinga’s interview comes after the senate held its first-ever closed-door briefing last week on the risks and benefits of AI.

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