As artificial intelligence continues to transform the media industry, popular Kannada channel Power TV has roped in South India's first AI news anchor. The management has named the new AI news anchor as 'Soundarya' and launched its debut news show featuring her on Tuesday.
Calling herself a “robot anchor”, Soundarya kicked off her debut news show by explaining her views on the impact of AI on the Indian TV news industry. She said, “AI has left its mark on every industry and the TV news industry is no exception. Robot anchors have already taken news channels in North India by storm and some of my colleagues have created a stir. Now, South India will be welcoming the country's first robot news anchor through Power TV. I am Soundarya.”
Following Power TV, another Kannada news channel, News First Kannada, has also introduced an AI assistant anchor called Maya.
The rise of AI anchors in Indian TV news industry
Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic in the news industry for a while now ever since the launch of India's first AI news anchor, Sana, which has significantly changed the way news channels are viewed. This year, many local newsrooms in India have adopted cutting edge technology by appointing their first AI-powered news anchors.
In March, India Today Group introduced India's first AI news anchor, Sana, on its Aaj Tak news channel. In April, Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV also introduced a male AI news anchor, Evan. Odia news channel OTV recently created an internet buzz by introducing an AI news presenter, Lisa, who can deliver news in both Odia and English with ease.
However, all these AI news anchors are still in the experimental stage, and it is expected that it will be some time before they are in charge of breaking news. Currently, these anchors are mainly in charge of short breaking news reports, where the AI presenter sometimes lip-syncs to a narration recorded by a human journalist.
