AI in newsrooms? 😲 yes that’s pretty much the reaction of everyone….
Just imagine that someday you wake up, switch on the TV 📺and see an AI news anchor reading news 📰
Yes! It seemed impossible earlier, but now AI is transforming everything with its potential and unimaginable capabilities.
It has now entered the news industry as well and AI is now taking over the newsrooms and these AI- powered anchors are transforming the news industry.
AI news anchors will work tirelessly without a single coffee break and that is quite an advantage for the news industry.
But what is occurring behind the scenes? Let’s dive into this to explore more….
Behind the Scenes: The Magic of AI News Anchors Unveiled
AI in Newsroom but How will it work, you ask? So, AI news anchors have an amazing capability to consume a huge amount of data into it and surprisingly it can mimic humans.
It can be done by taking the advantage of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques, AI anchors can pose expressions just like humans and deliver news in a similar way to human anchors.
First AI presenter Qiu Hao, a digital version of a news anchor named Xinhua, came to the forefront five years back in China’s news agency Xinhua; they did this by using machine learning (ML) to feed facial and voice data.
Similarly, more AI presenters were seen in the newsrooms in China and South Korea. It was all done by a South Korea- based company DeepBrain AI.
You must be wondering about how this happened? So, the Business development Manager at DeepBrain AI explained this process.
According to him, the original presenter reads a script of 500 to 1000 sentences. This script is designed to cover all the sounds and words of all languages and while recording the AI system records how the presenter’s face and how it changes while making specific sounds and taking breaks.
This recorded data was then used to teach the AI system how to mimic the presenter’s facial expressions and speaking patterns. The result was then an AI video avatar just like a copy of the original presenter. Also, It can say any word exactly like an original presenter.
Moreover, according to him It took about a whole day to record the video and then about three to four weeks for computers to learn and create the AI model.
In other words, they recorded the presenter’s speech and facial expressions as they read from a script, then they used that information to create an AI clone of the presenter.
AI news anchors will enhance the efficiency as well as it is more cost-effective as visual representatives can be created with custom avatars and this will not need any expensive human resource such as anchors, production staff or reporters. These AI anchors can bring to life by using state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.
News channels of India have already started to use AI anchors in their newsroom. It began by the AI news anchor Sana for their channel Aaj Tak in march.
Then national media group ABP News also introduced their AI anchor AIRA for its Telugu news channel ABP Desam.
Recently, Odisha TV also introduced the country’s first regional language AI anchor Lisa, followed by Kannada channel Power TV introducing its AI news anchor Soundarya.
Recently, Bangladesh has also adopted this change and on July 19, a private channel based in Dhaka made a headline introducing their first AI presenter “ Aparajita” in Bangladesh.
Birth of these AI anchors have raised so many questions like if they are going to replace human anchors? Will it be able to communicate like a human?
Undoubtedly, AI anchors will be a cost-effective solution for media houses. But is this good news?
Let’s look into depth in order to find facts, advantages and limitations of AI anchors
Impact of AI News Anchors on Media Industry
Let’s look at how AI news anchors will impact the media industry:
AI’s implementation in the newsroom can create unlimited possibilities for growth if used sensibly. It can be used by newspapers to generate personalized e-paper editions according to the readers’ preferences.
When talking about AI in the newsroom, Its most important impact is that it is cost-effective and will enhance news production efficiency. They can work 24/7 without a single break and getting tired so overall, it will make the news production process more economic
Due to its customizable and multilingual versatility, it can deliver news in different languages which in turn help to get more viewers.
Moreover, AI news anchors can consume complex data very quickly and can present it in a precise manner.
One major news organization, The Guardian in the UK, outlined how it was going to approach the use of generative AI.
“When we use genAI, we will focus on situations where it can improve the quality of our work, for example by helping journalists interrogate large data sets, assisting colleagues through corrections or suggestions, creating ideas for marketing campaigns, or reducing the bureaucracy of time-consuming business processes,” wrote the paper’s editor Katharine Viner, and CEO Anna Bateson, in a joint statement.
The above statement showed that not everyone is up to using AI anchors despite the fact that they are looking forward to using AI to improve the quality of their work.
Read More: Netflix Unleashing AI Potential: Pays AI Expert An Incredible $900k Salaries
Breaking News or Breaking Trust? AI’s Journalistic Risks Exposed
Along with benefits, AI presenter poses great risks too, Let’s explore together
A survey conducted by World Association of News Publishers revealed that only 38% of surveyed journalists think AI is a threat to their job security. However, they are more concerned about other threats such as data security (46%), plagiarism or copyright (67%) and misinformation (85%)
Apart from providing false information, AI poses several other risks to journalism as well. These risks might include use of sarcasm and metaphors in the wrong place.
AI news presenters lack the emotions and expressions that are very important to create a connection with the viewer.
AI might also deliver the biased information as it is being taught via data and data can be biased. This situation in turn will affect the credibility of news anchors.
Most importantly, AI anchors might face a challenge in accepting the sudden changes to real-time data such as breaking news or any other update while presenting news.
In contrast, human anchors have the ability to respond according to the situation and adapt to the real-time changes.
Is AI Anchor replacing Human News Anchor?
A question might be hitting your mind.
If human anchors are going to be replaced by AI anchors or not?
So, the answer for now is NO!
AI anchors are not able to replace the human anchors however they can assist them.
The attributes of human beings such as critical thinking, critical analysis, and their power to investigate in detail are not replaceable.However, it can contribute to enhancing news delivery efficiency.
According to the media expert Sevanti: “AI chatbots will save money and can be used for headlines, but I don’t see how they will be able to replace a reporter out in the field asking questions.” “It’s too early to tell what they’ll do to the concept of star anchors,” she says.
Conclusively, we can say that up till now AI is not going to replace human news anchors due to the several reasons. But who knows the future? Might be possible in future AI will completely replace anchors in the newsroom. In this AI transformed universe, we can expect anything anytime.