India’s Odisha TV has launched a news channel, fronted by ‘Lisa’ – their AI news anchor.
The Times of London reports that ‘Lisa’s opening words were:
“Warm greetings to everyone. Namaste… I am Lisa,” before telling the audience this was “a historic moment for journalism.”
The channel boss Jagi Mangat Panda called the moment “a milestone in broadcasting TV and digital journalism” and said ‘Lisa’s’ role would involve doing repetitive work “so news people can focus on doing more creative work to bring better quality news.” ‘Lisa’ will be able to deliver news in a variety of local Indian languages, and bring election results and similarly speedy news responses to the audience at great speed.
India Today launched a female AI news anchor called ‘Sana’ back in April. The figure presents during the 9pm slot every evening, reading headlines before being replaced on screen by a human presenter. The Times reports India Today boss Vibhor Gandotra affirming no job losses would result and that the public had reacted positively to her introduction. However, sceptics remain critical of the impact on reporting and chairing debates if such use of AI presenters is expanded.
