The strategy positions the company specifically for the niche of commodity audio content that podcast executives have conceded is already susceptible to bot-sourcing. The larger question is whether audiences will embrace its entertainment output, which the company plans to expand to feature a cast of AI-generated personalities in conversation with one another, discussing real and fictional subjects through the filters of their lab-designed personalities. 

“Most of the pushback is because people have not stayed on the cutting-edge of AI development,” Wright said. “If people say that AI creators will never be able to get to the emotionality of a human creator, I think they don’t understand the capabilities of the tools today and where they will be in the future.”

That such a product could ever take off admittedly feels like a stretch. And yet, by now I am loath to bet against the steady advance of AI into every crevice of creative output. 

So who is right: the podcast professionals betting on their moat of authenticity, or the Hollywood startup farming out its editorial to bots? 

“I do have a bit of anxiety,” Glenday said. “Sometimes, you get nervous when everyone agrees.”