Ask anyone who regularly interviews people and they'll tell you that few things are stranger than when the tables turn and you're the one being interviewed. This is especially true when the person interviewing you has been dead for a year and a half. Virtually Parkinson is a new podcast in which celebrities are interviewed by an AI model trained to speak and act like the late Michael Parkinson. The announcement of the podcast last year prompted a flurry of vaguely apocalyptic reactions. It was sacrilegious, some said, tantamount to digging up and reanimating a national treasure against his will. It was pointless, others said – of all the transformative ways to use AI, you're blowing it on a podcast?

However, the podcast's release comes at a time when the use of AI in creative arts is being hotly debated, with many arguing it needs to be used carefully and ethically, if at all. Many broadcasters and screen actors are concerned about the risk AI poses to their livelihoods, as well as the complications around AI being mistaken by the public for the real person or product. In 2022, the union Equity launched a "Stop AI Stealing the Show" campaign. The use of AI was a major factor in the strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill last year. However, as Sir Michael is dead and therefore no longer has a livelihood to protect, the debate in this case is more about whether or not it is ethical to have him say things he never said in real life, and also whether AI versions of real hosts is something listeners even want.