Episode 1: Into the Slop

I thought it was her, even from a snippet.

But I played it back a few times, just to be sure.

Initially, I was shocked.

First of all, Groupon's still around? But also, Megan's been working a side gig as an ad reader? Logically, it made sense.

I had picked Megan's voice from an online library of AI-generated voices at a company called Eleven Labs.

that I'd attach that voice to an AI agent that I named Megan, powered by a large language model.

Anyone else could have done the same.

Seemed like the ad folks at Groupon had.

At that point, I might have forgotten all about it.

Except that other people, people like you, who'd listened to our show, also started hearing Megan's voice in other places.

Like this skincare ad that someone sent to Sophie, our lead producer.

For the next five days only, new clients can experience our signature skin tightening facial for just $69.

What do you know about skin tightening facials, Megan? That wasn't all.

One afternoon, I got a text from the writer John Mualem, a good friend of mine.

I'm on the phone with Haley, an AI agent at Hertz, he wrote.

But it's Megan.

He sent me a recording of the call.

Thank you for confirming your new drop-off location and time.

I tried to generate a quote for this change, but there was an unexpected error and I'm unable to process your modification right now.

John later told me that at one point, quote, I mistakenly called her Megan and was like, Megan, I mean Haley, whoever you're pretending to be.

But Haley Megan got stuck in a loop and eventually had to get a human representative.

John turned out to have a sensitive ear for Megan's particular synthetic voice.

Periodically, I'd get a message from him, like, just called Randy's Heating and Cooling in Bremerton, and Megan picked up the phone.

I called Randy's to check.

Thank you for calling Randy's Heating.