Channel director Jagi Mangat Panda called Lisa’s debut “a milestone in broadcasting and digital journalism.” Whether positive or negative, it seems everyone has something to say about Odisha TV’s artificial intelligence anchor.
Dressed in a tan sari, Lisa is tasked with presenting news on digital platforms, reading horoscopes, and providing weather and sports information. Panda explains that the virtual MC takes care of repetitive tasks, freeing up staff to focus on creativity and delivering better quality news.
Still, the emergence of Lisa and other recent AI anchors has sparked debate about the future of media in India, a phenomenon that can be seen in other Asian countries, from China to Southeast Asia.
AI is a powerful tool for reaching audiences in a country like India, where hundreds of languages coexist. Lisa is not the country’s first AI anchor, but Sana of the India Today group. In addition to presenting news in English, Hindi and Bangla, Sana also speaks 75 other languages.
India Today Vice President Kalli Purie describes Sana as “bright, vibrant, ageless, tireless”. In Karnataka, Power TV also uses virtual anchor Soundarya.
The new wave of AI anchors is powered by machine learning algorithms that analyze data from news to videos. According to the INDIA government website, a virtual anchor “collects, tracks and classifies what is being said, who is saying it, and then transforms the data into actionable information.”
Virtual hosts are cost-effective, allow news channels to broadcast in multiple languages, and process large amounts of data at extraordinary speeds, and don’t suffer from “celebrity disease” like humans, their producers say.
Critics, however, say the technology risks undermining the credibility of the media. Robots also lack the observational skills and experience of human journalists. A teacher in Delhi said she immediately switched channels when she saw a virtual anchor because of his monotone voice and lifeless gestures.
Similar to other AI technologies, virtual MC applications have raised concerns about employees losing their jobs, despite manufacturers reassuring them that they will never replace humans.
A Power TV spokesperson said the channel simply wants to leverage the power of technology to try new and exciting things. In addition, the multilingual virtual hosts will help more people access the news.
Whatever the debate, AI in the newsroom is an irreversible trend. A survey released in May 2023 by the World Association of News Publishers found that 49% of global newsrooms are using AI tools like ChatGPT.
Mateen Ahmad, assistant professor at the AJK Center for Mass Communication Studies in India, said that any new technology causes initial confusion. For example, film producers feared that animation would replace live-action films, but that never happened.
Similar concerns have held back the publishing industry as the Internet takes off. Many fear that the Internet will be the death knell for books and newspapers, but the truth is that, for any creative job, humans are irreplaceable. Until AI becomes smarter than humans, humans will remain the key to innovation.
Ahmad predicts that AI will create more jobs in the media industry as it upgrades content.
(According to Nikkei)
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