Could AI-powered news anchors steal the show?

She is bright, gorgeous, ageless, tireless, speaks multiple languages and is completely under my control, said the India Today Group’s vice chairperson, Kalli Purie, at the April launch of “Sana,” the AI-powered news anchor with a human-like appearance who is fed data that it can read using text-to-speech technology.

- ATANU BISWAS

News anchors are the new avatars of AI. Sana is not unique, however. At the time this article was being written, there were an increasing number of AI-generated news anchors gracing screens across the country, including “Lisa” of the private news channel Odisha TV, “Soundarya” of the Kannada news channel Power TV, and “AI Kaur” of News18 Punjab/Haryana.

According to “robot anchor” Soundarya, “AI is leaving its footprint in every industry, and the TV news industry is no different.” But are these AI anchors revolutionising TV news and journalism? Whatever the case, this was bound to happen in AI’s Hogwarts, given the recent wave of generative AI. Since the launch of the chatbot ChatGPT in November last year, AI-generated news presenters have been steadily gaining popularity. Will they be able to fully replace human anchors, though?

“Zhang Zhao,” an English-speaking “male” news anchor powered by AI, was first introduced by Xinhua, China’s state news agency, in 2018. As part of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China also debuted a virtual host and the first AI presenter of sign language in the country. China’s state-owned news outlet People’s Daily launched their new AI-powered “female” presenter this year under the name “Ren Xiaorong,” stating that Xiaorong possesses the professional abilities of a “thousand presenters.” As Xiaorong put it, “Every conversation, every feedback you provide, will only make me smarter.” Newer avatars would also become smarter and more efficient thanks to technology.