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Something strange is happening to podcasts. On one AI network's content page, you can find daily surf reports for Los Angeles, San Diego, and Honolulu, a dedicated show called "Snakes," another called "6 7," a Chuck Mangione fan podcast, a show titled simply "Pasta," and separate programs for "Good Manners" and "Bad Manners." There is a podcast called "Cringe."
All of them are hosted by AI, produced for under a dollar an episode, and optimized not for listeners but for search and arriving by the thousands every day.
The numbers are striking enough to be almost absurd. One company, Inception Point AI, run by a former podcast executive, now operates more than 10,000 active shows, including a network that produces the ones listed above. Another network called Daily News Network, operating across more than 400 locally branded feeds, was putting out roughly 11,000 episodes a day earlier this year.
