I have news for Hank Azaria about AI Voices (Podcasting)
The voice of Moe is worried about being replaced some day. Some Day could be lunchtime if they wanted to.
Play me.
I spent ten seconds on that audio.
Let’s back up:
Hank Azaria is concerned he could be replaced by AI in the future. Hank, I have news for you, that technology quite exists. Hank told the NY Times:
The A.I. model may not know what’s funny or what timing is, but it could do a million different takes. And it could be told to do them as I would — and it might be pretty convincing.
So, if I’m being honest, I am a little worried. This is my job. This is what I love to do, and I don’t want to have to stop doing it. The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that the technology for making faces seem fully human is five years away. I fear that the voice equivalent is also coming.
Hank, it’s not coming. It’s here.
Is my ten seconds of audio perfect? Nope. But I spent ten seconds on it. Ten.
Now imagine if I had 600+ episodes of The Simpsons to sample, a version of AI tech that isn’t the Off The Shelf kind, and I spent more than ten seconds on it.
Hank, I could probably AI you in an episode of The Simpsons right now. Just me, this MacBook M1, some off-the-shelf software and a little bit of time.
This story gives me a good opportunity to show you what we’ve been up to at Caloroga Shark Media. I thought this episode of Ballot came out really well:
(Normally I would embed the episode, but Apple’s embed tech isn’t getting along with Substack today, so here’s the link.)
To create that episode, host Patrick Gutfield and the team of writers (we staff like the other companies and have 19 producers working on this one) and knocked out some jokes. Patrick then recorded his part, the staff announcer did the intro and one of the 19 staffers did the edit and posted it. The team does that six days a week.
That’s how podcasts are made in 2025, right?
It’s not like this was all me and 95% AI, and wait for it….there is no Patrick Gutfield. Obviously there is. Here’s a photo I took of him recording the episode.
Anyway Hank…don’t stress too much about who is going to voice Moe in Season 52 of The Simpsons. You’ll get paid. And thanks for stopping by The Caloroga Building this morning to do the photo shoot with Hankbot.
