India has a new AI-generated news anchor called Lisa.
Upon closer inspection, Lisa's slow blinking and stuttering motion was definitely unsettling to see.
Even so, I feel news presenters should now be very worried about their job security.
Add news anchors to the list of jobs that artificial intelligence is coming for — a quiet takeover of the news reader's desk has now reached India.
AI-generated anchors presented the news in India for the first time in April, the South China Morning Post reported. One of them, named Lisa, is now a news presenter on Odisha TV, a local station broadcasting in eastern India.
At first glance, Lisa could pass for a human news presenter. Upon closer inspection, however, the AI's slow blinking and stuttering motion was definitely unsettling to see.
Lisa has a robotic monotone and fails to add the necessary shifts in tone that a human presenter might use. But keeping aside the discrepancies in the audio and video sync, her delivery would be serviceable.
Lisa can also be found on Odisha TV's Twitter account. Videos uploaded state the presenter's name but do not specifically mention that Lisa is AI-generated.
—OTV (@otvnews) July 18, 2023
If you're just listening to the news while being surrounded by the low hum and chatter of the office, you could easily mistake her for a human.
In other words, she's an acceptable match for a 24-hour medium that's often left playing in the background of offices, cafes, and hospital rooms.
The era of AI news readers isn't just on the horizon, this robotic revolution is already here. Today, Lisa joins the legion of other AI-generated presenters employed by newsrooms in Indonesia, Taiwan, Kuwait, Malaysia, and China.
It's unclear how Lisa's introduction impacted the jobs of others in her newsroom, or whether the move was motivated by cost-saving measures.
Odisha TV's managing director, Jagi Mangat Panda, told the South China Morning Post, "Lisa is going to be a great partner. [It] does the jobs that are repetitive and data analytical, so newspeople can focus on new angles and more creative work."
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