News Station Unveils Creepy AI News Anchor
Kuwait News debuted an AI news anchor.
Just in case a world full of AI actors and robot dogs wasn’t enough, now we’re going to have an AI news anchor, too. Kuwait’s English-speaking news outlet Kuwait News has unveiled an AI news anchor named “Fedha,” according to Futurism. The blonde artificial presenter’s main job will be sharing the latest news along with innovative content.
The first video of the AI news anchor shows a very realistic blonde woman dressed in a simple white t-shirt and blue jacket as she shares the news with a pleasant smile. Her subtle mannerisms and realistic features will make you do a double-take to see whether or not she is real. If you didn’t know that Fedha (named after the Kuwaiti term for silver, the metal) was artificial, you might think she’s just an average news anchor.
During her first video, the AI news anchor also asked the audience what kind of news they would like to hear, urging people to share their opinions with Kuwait News. This sparks flashbacks to Tay, the artificial intelligence chatbot that was unleashed on Twitter back in 2016. Within hours, the trolls of the world turned the seemingly innocent chatbot into a foul-mouthed racist that needed to be destroyed.
Artificial intelligence is certainly the way of the future when it comes to mindless automated tasks, but when it comes to replacing humans in traditional roles like the media, then it stirs up some ethical concerns. Could Fedha be taking a job away from a woman or man who dreams of being a news anchor? Or does the AI news anchor free up more time and costs so that Kuwait News journalists can produce more research and expand their distribution?
It seems like there are infinite possibilities for the ways society can use artificial intelligence, hopefully, all of which are for the greater good of humanity. For instance, DeepNash showed off its intelligence by learning how to play the classic board game Stratego and the company DoNotPay has created an artificial intelligence legal assistant to help people with speeding tickets. The use of AI in these scenarios is fascinating and helpful, but it is concerning to imagine just how intelligent AI could become, especially in the wrong hands.
While Fedha will function as an AI news anchor, there is a concern that the automated newsfeed could filter out content that the audience may not necessarily want to see or only show audiences a limited view of the news. In some ways, this is similar to TikTok’s algorithm. If you keep watching content on the social media app based only on your key interests, you will see less and less of other news that could be important or valuable.
One other potential fear with the new AI news anchor is that an outside organization could potentially hack Fedha. If a hacker were to gain control of Fedha’s newsfeed, then they could share any information or news they want, whether or not it’s real. Say what you will about old-fashioned human news anchors, but at least they can’t be hacked.
