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NOPE
Medium reported severity Internal Action

Kraków public radio channel relaunched with AI presenters after ending freelance hosts' contracts; former hosts say they were replaced, station denies

Radio Kraków, a regional public broadcaster in Poland, ended the cooperation contracts of the freelance collaborators who hosted programmes on its OFF Radio Kraków channel at the end of August 2024. On 22 October 2024 the channel relaunched in a format based on artificial intelligence, with three presenters whose voices and faces were made with an AI program, and soon aired an AI-generated "interview" with the poet Wisława Szymborska, who died in 2012. A former host told OKO.press that eight collaborators, himself included, lost their work; former hosts started a petition against the "experiment" and, according to Notes from Poland, said they had been let go to make way for the AI plans. The station's liquidator and editor-in-chief said no employee was dismissed, that the contracts with external collaborators ended for reasons other than AI, chiefly near-zero audience figures, and that the station never intended to replace people with machines. After a backlash the station ended the AI channel on 28 October 2024, less than a week after launch. Whether the contracts ended because of the AI plan is disputed.

AI system
Unidentified voice and image tool
Occurred
Aug 2024 to Oct 2024
Reported
22 October 2024
Event location
Poland
What the AI did
Relation unknown
Reported harm
Professional Harm
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Work
Evidence
AI involvement disputed · Causal attribution disputed · 2 sources
6 claims: 1 disputed, 5 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 8 people

AI system as recorded: Unnamed AI program used by Radio Kraków to generate the voices and images of three presenters and an imagined interview with a dead poet for its relaunched OFF Radio Kraków channel

What Happened

Contracts ended. OFF Radio Kraków was a channel of the public broadcaster Radio Kraków, then in liquidation, broadcast online and on DAB+. According to OKO.press, two months before the relaunch the liquidator ended the contracts of the collaborators who hosted programmes. One former freelance host said eight collaborators, himself included, lost their work, and that he learned of a "change of format" by chance when asking about leave for September. He said that when the liquidator told him the cooperation was ending because of cuts in public media, he accepted it, but that he could not leave it there once he read about the use of AI.

The AI relaunch. On 22 October 2024 the channel relaunched in a new format based on AI. Three presenters with names, personalities and interests were presented; OKO.press reports that their voices and faces were created with an AI program and that they would replace more than a dozen journalists and presenters. Within hours the channel aired an imagined, AI-generated interview with the poet Wisława Szymborska, which, according to Notes from Poland, the Wisława Szymborska Foundation had authorised. Former hosts launched a petition calling the experiment a dangerous precedent for journalists and the creative industries.

The station's position. The liquidator, who was also editor-in-chief, told OKO.press that no employee of OFF Radio Kraków had been dismissed, that the cooperation contracts with mainly external collaborators ended at the end of August 2024, that the reason was not the introduction of AI tools, and that the channel's audience reach was close to zero. OKO.press notes that civil-law contracts in Polish media are often the basis for work equivalent to full-time jobs. On 28 October 2024 the station ended the AI channel after less than a week, saying it had always communicated that it did not intend to replace people with machines.

Reported harm

Freelance hosts of OFF Radio Kraków lost their programmes when their contracts ended in August 2024; a former host counts eight people, and the former hosts say they were let go to make way for the AI presenters launched in October 2024, which the station denies.

How Harm Occurred

A public broadcaster ended its freelance hosts' contracts and two months later relaunched their channel with AI-generated presenters; the former hosts attribute their lost work to replacement by AI, while the broadcaster says the contracts ended because of low audience figures.

Outcome

Resolved

Radio Kraków ended the AI-run channel on 28 October 2024, less than a week after the 22 October relaunch that was to last three months; its editor-in-chief called the experiment a success. A former host's petition against the experiment had about 8,000 signatures by the afternoon of 22 October 2024, according to OKO.press. An MP from the governing coalition said he was awaiting the culture ministry's response. The sources read do not say whether any former host was taken back.

What remains unknown

  • Whether the contracts were ended because of the AI plan; the station denies it and the former hosts attribute it.
  • The exact number of people who lost work: one former host counts eight.
  • Whether any former host was taken back after the AI channel ended.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: disputed. The station relaunched the channel with presenters whose voices and faces were created with an AI program, two months after ending the hosts' contracts (OKO.press, Notes from Poland). The former hosts attribute their lost work to that AI plan; the liquidator says the contracts ended because of near-zero audience and not because of AI. The harm is a consequential response to the broadcaster's adoption of AI presenters; no AI output was directed at the hosts, so the relation is unknown under the consequential-response exemption.

6 claims: 1 disputed, 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The liquidator of Radio Kraków ended the contracts of the collaborators who hosted programmes on OFF Radio Kraków two months before the October 2024 relaunch; a former host says eight collaborators, himself included, lost their work.

Causal attribution. OKO.press narrative and the former host's own count; the contracts themselves were not inspected.

  • oko.press(opens in new tab) supports · Polish
    'Dwa miesiące wcześniej likwidator Radia Kraków rozwiązał umowy ze współpracownikami, prowadzącymi audycje w Offie.'; 'pracę straciło ośmiu współpracowników'
Reported On 22 October 2024 OFF Radio Kraków relaunched in a format based on AI output, with three presenters whose voices and faces were created with an AI program.

Causal attribution. Both outlets describe the station's own announcement and broadcasts; they rest on the same origin, so the claim is reported.

  • oko.press(opens in new tab) supports · Polish
    'Ich głosy i twarze stworzono za pomocą programu sztucznej inteligencji'; 'Off Radio Kraków w nowej formule, opartej na wytworach sztucznej inteligencji, ruszyło oficjalnie 22 października.'
  • notesfrompoland.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'The station’s programmes were presented by three AI characters, each of which had a specific personality, set of interests and even AI-generated images of how they look.'
Reported Shortly after the relaunch the channel aired an imagined, AI-generated interview with the poet Wisława Szymborska, who died in 2012.

Causal attribution. Notes from Poland's account of the broadcast; it says the programme was authorised by the poet's foundation.

  • notesfrompoland.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Shortly after its launch, OFF aired an imagined, AI-generated interview with Wisława Szymborska, a Polish Nobel Prize-winning poet who died in 2012.'
Disputed Former hosts say they lost their work to make way for the AI plans and started a petition against the experiment, which about 8,000 people had signed by the afternoon of 22 October 2024.

Causal attribution. The former hosts' attribution of their lost work to the AI plan; the station denies it (c5). The same former host told OKO.press that the liquidator had cited cuts when ending the cooperation.

  • oko.press(opens in new tab) supports · Polish
    'Do godziny 15:30 we wtorek 22 października podpisało ją 8 tys. osób.'; 'Ale w momencie, kiedy przeczytałem o wykorzystaniu AI, nie mogłem tego tak zostawić'
  • notesfrompoland.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'including from former staff at OFF, who said they had been fired to make way for the AI plans'
Reported The liquidator said no employee of OFF Radio Kraków was dismissed, that the contracts with mainly external collaborators ended at the end of August 2024, that the reason was not the introduction of AI tools, and that the channel's audience reach was close to zero.

Causal attribution. The liquidator's written statement to OKO.press, quoted directly.

  • oko.press(opens in new tab) supports · Polish
    'informuję, że żaden pracownik Off Radia Kraków nie został zwolniony'; 'Przyczyną nie było wprowadzenie narzędzi sztucznej inteligencji'; 'zasięgi słuchalności Off Radia Kraków były bliskie zeru'
Reported After a backlash, Radio Kraków ended the AI channel on 28 October 2024, less than a week after launch, saying it had never intended to replace people with machines.

Causal attribution. The station's statement as reported by Notes from Poland.

  • notesfrompoland.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'has decided to end the “experiment” after less than a week on the air following a backlash against the idea'; 'clearly communicating that we did not intend to replace people with machines'

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in full in the original Polish (HTML body and stripped text). The passages are quoted in Polish; the English renderings in the record are translations by the research agent (an AI), not by a human translator. Applies to s1.

Read in full in English, the language of publication; no translation was needed. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Poland. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

Both sources state that the station is Radio Kraków's OFF channel in Kraków, Poland, where the contracts were ended and the channel relaunched. The hosts' own countries are not stated, and no court was involved.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-24: Published as a concrete consequential response to AI adoption in which the causal link is disputed: freelance hosts of a public radio channel lost their work, and two months later the channel relaunched with AI presenters. The former hosts' attribution and the station's denial are both recorded, from two independent news outlets.

People described

Freelance journalists and hosts whose cooperation contracts with OFF Radio Kraków ended in August 2024

People reported harmed in this case

At least 8 people

0 AI participants · 8 other people harmed

A former freelance host told OKO.press that eight collaborators, himself included, lost their work; OKO.press separately says the AI presenters would replace more than a dozen journalists and presenters, which is not counted. Whether the losses were caused by the AI plan is disputed.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-presenters#public-broadcaster#freelance-journalists#job-loss-attributed-to-ai#disputed-causation#poland

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Kraków public radio channel relaunched with AI presenters after ending freelance hosts' contracts; former hosts say they were replaced, station denies. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-krakow-public-radio-channel-relaunched-with-ai-presenters-after-ending-freelance-hosts-contracts

BibTeX

@misc{2024_krakow_public_radio_channel_relaunched_with_ai_presenters_after_ending_freelance_hosts_contracts,
  title = {Kraków public radio channel relaunched with AI presenters after ending freelance hosts' contracts; former hosts say they were replaced, station denies},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-krakow-public-radio-channel-relaunched-with-ai-presenters-after-ending-freelance-hosts-contracts}
}

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