back to article This is peak AI: Bot to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme

The BBC has confirmed that Radio 4's Today programme will conduct an interview with a politician via an AI bot "modelled on Mishal Husain". The flagship current affairs show draws the station's biggest audience – and at Christmas brings in several celebrity "editors" as a gimmick. The AI bot will "guest edit" and interview a …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Semtex451
    Windows

    Christmas guest editor lineup:

    So who are all those other people in the guest lineup?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Christmas guest editor lineup:

      So who are all those other people in the guest lineup?

      Prince Harry - red-headed stepchild of notorious London family dependent on state handouts

      Baroness Trumpington - peer of the realm, close personal acquaintance of Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb

      Tamara Rojo - Former "It" girl and heiress to a confectionery empire

      Ben Okri - Large hill in Scotland

  3. Aladdin Sane

    Baroness Trumpington

    Soon to be followed by Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Baroness Trumpington

      Pugh has been fired, it turns out he was claiming two salaries

      1. Rich 11 Silver badge

        Re: Baroness Trumpington

        Dibble's gone too. Turns out he was dibbling in one too many front gardens.

  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Bah, humbug!

    The Today Programme has been shit for years ever since they adopted the confrontational approach, which is easy to prep for. I miss Brian Redhead, RIP.

    1. tiggity Silver badge

      Re: Bah, humbug!

      Main issue is lack of a clue about so many subjects by the interviewers (Stares at John).

      You need a minimum amount of knowledge to ask sensible (or awkward questions if going that route) - and without basic knowledge, when the interviewee lies, R4 folk typically cannot call out their BS as they don't know enough to know.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bah, humbug!

        After JH admitted this week he didn't know what "productivity" was this week, and therefore, according to him, no one else did either, he handed over to the financial reporter, who said "and now let's talk to some people who DO have a clue".

        Classic :)

      2. Roj Blake Silver badge

        Re: Bah, humbug!

        Last week, Humphrys was banging on about the effectiveness of dowsing for water. Says all you need to know.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tokenism as normal

    Among the usual establishment figures, it's clear that they've selected one of the guest editors purely to represent a minority group. This is pretty obvious : political correctness for the sake of it. There always has to be at least one Ginger in any BBC line up these days......

    1. Excellentsword

      Re: Tokenism as normal

      And quite right too.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Tokenism as normal

        I note that they have never had any Orcs, Elves or Dwarves on the program.

        Pure Tolkeinism !

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Tokenism as normal

      Was listening to several professors of dinosaurology on Radio 4 the other day.

      One of them was lead researcher on a paper on some of the interesting fossils being found in China. And he was able to study their skin, and "proto-feathers" - including the shape, and therefore colour) of their skin pigment.

      Turns out that not only did lots of dinosaurs have feathers, but also lots of them were gingers!

      It's no wonder they couldn't cope with all that bright light when the asteroid hit...

  6. Semtex451
    Pirate

    Erm ....Hang on

    "This year "artificial intelligence" has taken over from "behavioural economics" or "climate change" as the topic every BBC Radio 4 programme must mention, as frequently as possible, regardless."

    Seems to me El Reg is as guilty of this type of thing as R4

    1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge

      Re: Erm ....Hang on

      Only when they can work in a mention of DevOps or Agile at the same time...

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        IT Angle

        Re: Erm ....Hang on

        In fairness to R4, they don't seem feature stories of firemen called to release todgers caught in various contraptions

        1. tiggity Silver badge

          Re: Erm ....Hang on

          Shame, as that would make it a better listen, especially with a few Dremel (or whatever) sound effects

        2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

          Re: Erm ....Hang on

          feature stories of firemen called to release todgers caught in various contraptions

          Which is bad. Stories about Artificial Intelligence should be evenly balanced by stories about Natural Stupidity.

  7. colinb

    Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

    Interviewer: Minister, this X is a serious problem,right?

    PolitBot: That is not accurate, one thing we always focus on is Y and we have made excellent progress on that.

    Interviewer: but this report just proves X has not been fixed.

    PolitBot: again, one thing we always focus on is Y and we have made excellent progress on that.

    Interviewer: why don't you answer the question.

    PolitBot: I love questions and the thing we always focus on is Y and I've just heard we have made excellent progress on that.

    Interviewer: yes, from you!

    PolitBot: I'm glad you agree.

    Interviewer: thank you, Minister.

    PolitBot: thank you, i love answering questions.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

      Isn't that pretty much what Maggie used to do? Talk about what she wanted to talk about and ignore the interviewer?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

      That's a malfunctioning bot it needs to use the phrases:

      Let me be clear about this ... (followed by something very unclear)

      The real question you should be asking ... (followed by a self promotional question)

      The will of the people

      I can't answer hypothetical questions

      I can't comment on individual cases (err, why not?)

      ...

      1. Commswonk

        Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

        Remember the foregoing next time you hear Jeremy Hunt being interviewed.

        Credit where it's due; the voice synthesiser is excellent. All it needs is a bit of emotion to make it sound a little more human.

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

        Could simplify the whole process if the interviewer and the politician were bots.

        You could just have a new set of http error codes:

        401 - not answering the question

        402 - redirect to another question

        403 - re-asking the previous question

        1. Commswonk

          Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

          404 - Answer Not Found.

          1. colinb

            Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

            500 - Dead inside, I need a new job

        2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

          Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

          You could just have a new set of http error codes:

          The current lot will just go to 418.

      3. colinb

        Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

        there are lots of optional extras in addition to the phrases module.

        - Diane Abbot Maths Module

        - Theresa May Personality Module

        - Micheal Gove I'm a hammer everything is a Nail Module

        - Boris Johnson (TM) Joke Module, has a random Latin and poetry glitch, not fixable

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

          Boris Johnson (TM) Joke Module, has a random Latin and poetry glitch, not fixable

          Don't forget the philandering and condescension…

        2. Captain DaFt

          Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

          - Theresa May Personality Module

          At last! An AI program I can do!:

          command &>/dev/null

          job arg1 arg2 &>/dev/null

          /path/to/script arg1 &>/dev/null

          There, sorted!

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Politicians are already Bots, preprogammed, script driven

            When AI has taken everyone's jobs, listening to AIs interviewing AIs on the Today program will be even more tedious than it is already.

            Expanding that out to 24/7 news, it will make even Big Brother sound interesting.

  8. John 110

    I was hoping....

    ....for something like Max Headroom :(

    We need a Max Headroom icon!

  9. John H Woods

    The marvellous late Humphrey Lyttekton...

    ... perfectly described Today as "30 minutes of news and comment packed into an exciting two hour programme"

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: The marvellous late Humphrey Lyttekton...

      Wake me up when IBM get Watson to play Mornington Crescent

      1. Rich 11 Silver badge

        Re: The marvellous late Humphrey Lyttekton...

        Wake me up when IBM get Watson to play Mornington Crescent

        They've already got a computer on the show playing Mornington Crescent. It keeps trying to chat up Tim Brooke-Taylor.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The marvellous late Humphrey Lyttekton...

      The Today programme is 3 hours?

      Didn't you also remark about this in 2011?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The marvellous late Humphrey Lyttekton...

        Re: The Today programme is 3 hours?

        Yeah JH gets around £9K / week.

    3. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: The marvellous late Humphrey Lyttekton...

      If I recall the joke correctly, Humph described Today as, "30 minutes of news and comment packed into an exciting 3 hours of trailers and time-checks." Or something like that.

      With the time now coming up to 8:32 and 23 seconds, it's time for Thought for the Day. With the Rabbi Lionel Blue 2.0.

  10. Bob Vistakin
    Pint

    It may be peak AI, but it's sure not peak R4 Today

    This is something only a human could ever do, and fully appreciate.

  11. lobsterpasties

    I suppose it's one way of stopping BBC presenters from sexually assaulting everyone they come in to contact with. No hands, no problem.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Devil

      Have you never heard of the Grope-Bot 1000?

      Silicon Valley's answer to the problem of having to sack execs caught sexually assaulting their staff. With fewer execs available, it's either reduce female staffing levels, or automate...

      I'm still not sure if this is a sign that my humour and cynical heart are becoming ever blacker with age - or just that my opinion of much of the technology giant's attitude to the people around them is lowering every time I read El Reg...

  12. Steve Crook

    Don't complain about the politicians

    What did anyone expect the result of the hostile questioning and striving to make headlines through an interview comment would be, the truth? ROFL. The problem is that anyone at the sharp end is being sent on media courses (run by ex BBC staffers) to learn how to deal with this shit. Most current BBC (or other) interviewers haven't got around to changing their questioning tactics. Except Brillo.

    Part of the problem is that a politician being honest about anything is immediately pilloried. Ask an MP is they'd like to be leader of the party and they say YES, watch the media fireworks, regardless of the context of what they said.

    We have the press and politicians we deserve...

    I'd suggest that the *only* proper response to a repeated failure to answer a direct question might be to terminate the interview...

    1. Warm Braw

      Re: Don't complain about the politicians

      I think the problem is that there is essentially a pre-planned media agenda for the day: politicians have a set of talking points they want to get out, carefully phrased to side-step potential criticism. Equally, their opponents will have a set of refutations, carefully phrased, to avoid drawing attention to their own failures. Those politicians will only agree to appear if there is a tacit understanding that the journalists will play along with the carefully-choreographed "I put it to you" ritual. If a journalist were to ask questions that strayed too far from the day's agenda there would be noone available the next time that programme requested an interview.

      It's probably time to abandon the idea that the pinnacle of journalistic achievement is to interview senior policiticans - they won't tell you anything enlightening and if they did it would merely illuminate briefly the chasms in their understanding.

  13. Aladdin Sane
    Mushroom

    Will this finally be the time that the Today program leads us into a nuclear apocalypse?

  14. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Will it also have a guest spot at The Archers?

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