Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital world has seen rapid growth and the emergence of new technologies, among which artificial intelligence has been particularly transformative. ChatGPT and Google Bard (now known as Gemini), natural language processing chatbots powered by generative AI technology, have revolutionized the way naturally intelligent humans perform tasks and make decisions.
But progress often faces resistance. The rise of new technologies is always met with misunderstanding and opposition, as new technologies challenge current norms and conceptual systems, forcing people to adapt to new environments. The rise of AI is no exception. Even before its arrival, AI has been imbued with doomsday imagery, and while such scenarios may help keep alive the debate about the potential future pitfalls of uncontrolled development, such fears are far from reality. For now, existing AI systems work well within a narrow scope of focus and with the help of large amounts of data. With such rigid boundaries of learning, unpredictable events will only cause the system to fail. To be sure, there is no clear path for machines to become sentient. In many doomsday scenarios, machines will need to demonstrate some degree of self-awareness, perhaps coupled with a sense of self-preservation. Moreover, they will need the means (both programming and physical capabilities) to react to such feedback in order to improve their chances of survival. Rather, the real dangers of AI today are social, primarily privacy issues, job losses, over-reliance, and fraud, all of which have human elements. Therefore, a potential problem arising from AI will be the misuse of such technology by humans.
So, despite these challenges, AI will continue to advance. AI expert Andrew Ng calls AI the “new electricity.” Just as electricity transformed the world, no industry will be able to escape the impact of AI in this century. This will likely include the media industry.
Indian news organizations have seen widespread and rapid adoption of AI-powered news bots in the past year, garnering international attention. In particular, multilingual AI news anchors Lisa of Odisha TV and Sana featured on India Today-owned channels have made significant strides in the area of AI-powered news presentation.
Known for her traditional dress and indigenous look, Lisa aims to resonate with a wider Indian audience, but critics say her current speaking style, characterised by a slow, monotone tone and a lack of expressive gestures, lacks the desired fluency.
Meanwhile, Sana is fluent in English, Hindi and Bengali, making her debut as someone who can respond to India's linguistic diversity and communicate fluently in over 75 languages. The introduction of such a multilingual AI news anchor has the potential to increase news accessibility to a diverse population in a country with 22 official languages.
A crucial question is whether Pakistan, whose media environment is similar to India's, will follow India's lead in introducing AI news presenters. Proponents highlight the benefits of continuous availability and not being subject to human limitations such as illness, fatigue, vacation, and aging. Robot news presenters would excel at consistently processing and delivering vast amounts of information, especially during time-sensitive events such as elections and financial news updates.
But proponents of AI technology stress that these virtual news reporters are not intended to replace human reporters. They face limitations, such as an inability to provide nuanced analysis or critical assessments, or to deal with complex on-the-ground situations. Tasks that require discernment, such as interviewing high-profile people or moderating heated debates, remain the domain of human reporters.
A practical approach would be to delegate the mundane tasks of the newsdesk, such as weather forecasts, financial data, and sports results, to AI news presenters, giving human journalists the opportunity to pursue more creative endeavors. Efforts are underway to train these AI news anchors for television debates and real-time interactions with viewers, indicating that their capabilities may evolve.
Despite the undeniable benefits, the introduction of AI news anchors also comes with challenges, including concerns about potential job losses and emotionless, monotonous reporting. Additionally, there is a risk that AI anchors could be misused for misinformation and propaganda, given their algorithmic ability to control the flow of information by identifying and omitting certain content.
As the era of AI news readers arrives, with Lisa in India joining its peers across countries, Pakistan will need to adopt a proactive approach to remain competitive in an evolving media environment. Balancing efficiency with ethical considerations will be essential to navigate this new territory.
