Voice of Google Maps in Poland loses job after being replaced by AI

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Google has replaced the voice of its Maps service in Poland with an AI-generated alternative, ending a 15-year partnership with radio journalist and voiceover artist Jarosław Juszkiewicz.

This is the second attempt to replace Juszkiewicz’s voice with one generated by a speech synthesiser. In 2020, when Google briefly replaced Juszkiewicz with synthesised audio, user backlash prompted the company to reinstate the familiar voice after a week.

After the latest decision by Google to part with Juszkiewicz, the owner of a rival application – the driver assistant Yanosik, to which Juszkiewicz also lent his voice – announced that it would stick with him. Meanwhile, state energy giant Orlen has announced a partnership with Juszkiewicz as a response to his recent firing.

“I was the voice of Google Maps for 15 years. Thank you for the millions of miles we explored together and for all the places we discovered together when I led you on the wrong path,” Juszkiewicz said in a recording published on his YouTube channel last week.

“Artificial intelligence is sweeping through the world of human voice work like a giant steamroller. And I can, in my own human voice, say, probably for the last time: ‘Smile and head south’,” he added.

Google first wanted to replace his voice with one generated by a speech synthesiser four years ago. On 22 May 2020, his voice in Maps was replaced by Google Assistant’s speech synthesiser, but, after protests from Google users seven days later, Juszkiewicz’s voice was restored in the app.

This time, although users again expressed solidarity with Juszkiewicz, the change was not reversed.

In a statement provided to Press magazine, Google Polska said only that the team responsible for Google Maps is “constantly working on the development of the application and the user experience”.

“We confirm that the navigation voice has changed as part of the latest update and we sincerely thank Jarosław Juszkiewicz for lending his voice, which has accompanied many Polish users on their journeys over the past years,” the company said.

A rival app, Yanosik, which informs drivers of road obstructions and speed controls, meanwhile, pledged to keep Juszkiewicz’s voice in their app.

“In Yanosik navigation, you will still be guided to your destination by the voice of Jarosław Juszkiewicz,” the company wrote in a post on X.

Within a few days of the announcement of the decision, Yanosik recorded an 8% increase in the number of new users, according to the company’s owners, reports Press.

Meanwhile, Orlen, which is the owner of Poland’s largest chain of petrol stations, announced that it had launched a cooperation with Juszkiewicz that will include using his voice in its marketing campaigns.

“We cannot imagine that this voice could be missing. In the age of artificial intelligence and algorithms, Orlen relies on empathy and intuition,” said Lidia Kolucka, the firm’s executive director of sponsorship, quoted by the Wirtualne Media news service. “This voice, well known to us from his numerous travels, will support our marketing and promotional projects.”

Juszkiewicz has already lent his voice to radio adverts, broadcast since yesterday, advertising recruitment for Orlen’s sponsorship programme for amateur sports clubs.

This is the second time this month that the replacement of media staff by artificial intelligence has made headlines in Poland.

Last week, Radio Kraków – a public broadcaster in Poland’s second-largest city – launched a channel run almost entirely by artificial intelligence, including AI presenters, after ending cooperation with the staff that had previously run it.

The idea was met with a backlash, and the project was ended after less than a week on the air, despite initially being scheduled to last for three months. Radio Kraków still claimed that the project had been a “success”, saying that it had always been intended as a way to spark debate about the role of AI in the media.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Isaac Mehegan / Unsplash