2023-04-12 16:46:52
A Kuwaiti media outlet has introduced its new news anchor generated using artificial intelligence. Known as ‘Fedha’, the presenter appeared on the Twitter account of the ‘Kuwait News’ website last Saturday as a woman with light-colored hair and dressed in a black jacket and white T-shirt.
“I am Fedha, the first anchor in Kuwait to work with AI at Kuwait News. What kind of news do you prefer? Let’s listen to her opinions,” she said in Arabic in the presentation video.
Kuwait News is affiliated with the Kuwait Times, founded in 1961 as the Gulf region’s first English-language daily. For his part, Abdullah Boftain, editor-in-chief of both outlets, said that over time, Fedha could adopt a Kuwaiti accent and host news bulletins on the outlet’s Twitter account. Also, according to Boftain, Fedha represents everyone in Kuwait and his name is a combination of the words ‘silver’ and ‘robot’. “We always imagine robots to be silver and metallic in color, so we combined the two,” he revealed. He also said the presenter’s blonde hair and light-colored eyes reflected the country’s diverse Kuwaiti and expatriate population.
The 13-second introductory video featuring Fedha has generated several reactions on social media. Especially among journalists, who have warned that while the rapid rise of AI globally has held out the promise of great benefits, such as in health care and the elimination of mundane tasks, it also jeopardizes the integrity of the news for the possible spread of misinformation.
Other AI-generated newscasters
In fewer years than most humans imagine, these machines with a thinking “soul” will replace flesh and blood people in any job that involves customer service: secretaries, bank tellers, store clerks, museum guides. , waiters, etc pic.twitter.com/orZzuNVTqx
— Jack Casablanca (@UberCitizen) February 21, 2019
Lastly, although the presenter has caused quite a stir on social media, Fedha is not the first presenter generated by artificial intelligence. China’s state news agency Xinhua released the world’s first computerized presenter in 2018. In introducing him, the presenter, named Qiu Hao, said that he would report “tirelessly” 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from anywhere in China. To which was added Xin Xiaomeng, the first presenter with artificial intelligence designed to read news on television.
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