Virtually Parkinson: Michael Parkinson's family defend AI podcast which will use late star's voice to interview stars

Virtually Parkinson, produced by Deep Fusion Films, has been created with the backing of Parkinson’s family and estate and will harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recreate his voice in the eight-part audio series. Parkinson died at the age of 88 in August 2023.

Hi son, Mike Parkinson, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he and the family had made clear to producers that the voice heard in the show is not authentically his father’s. He also backed co-creators Jamie Anderson and Ben Field, saying that the pair are “100% very ethical in their approach towards it, they are very aware of the legal and ethical issues, and they will not try to pass this off as real".

Mike added: "Before he died, we [my father and I] talked about doing a podcast, and unfortunately he passed away before it came true, which is where Deep Fusion came in. I came to them and said, ‘if we wanted to do this podcast with my father talking about his archive, is it possible?’, and they said ‘it’s more than possible, we think we can do something more’.

Parkinson was known to million for his iconic interviewing styles, with AI analysing thousands of interview with legendary guests such as Elton John, Billy Connolly and Muhammad Ali to recreate his voice beat-for-beat. Mike said that his “technophobe” father “would have been fascinated” by the process of making the podcast.

Jamie Anderson added: "These are brand new interviews, and the AI we’ve created is as close to the late Sir Michael as we could possibly get it. He is autonomous, so we let him start the interview and after that it is up to AI Sir Michael, who is trained on Sir Michael’s style and the interview questions.

"We can’t tell you the guests yet, we have a few slots remaining, but they are notable, noteworthy people."