“But this stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be – and how easy it is to hoodwink audiences with content they have no way of verifying.”
The Dispatches episode – “Will AI take my job?” – investigated how it is changing workplaces across industries, including law, music, fashion, and medicine.
The fact that the presenter, named Aisha Gaban and who appears on-screen throughout the programme, was entirely AI-generated is revealed in its closing moments.
“Some of you might have guessed: I don’t exist, I wasn’t on location reporting this story. My image and voice were generated using AI,” she informs viewers.
Highlighting the growing role of AI tools in workplaces, the episode revealed that nearly three-quarters of British bosses have already introduced the tech for tasks previously performed by humans.
AI hosts have been appearing on TV screens in different parts of the world for a number of years.
China’s state news agency Xinhua made headlines in 2018 when it introduced an AI news anchor who was a digital version of one of its regular presenters.
More recently, an AI persona named Fedha read the headlines for Kuwait News in the Gulf emirate, while Greek state broadcaster ERT did the same with an AI host named Hermes in May 2023, according to the BBC.
South Korean broadcaster SBS also handed over the duties of news presenting to AI-generated character Zae-In, for five months in 2023 while India and Taiwan have seen similar stunts, the Guardian reported.
-Agence France-Presse
