AI's news anchor auditions

Hey, it's Saritha Rai, reporter covering artificial intelligence in Asia. India's hoary state-owned broadcaster has introduced two new ancho [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey, it's Saritha Rai, reporter covering artificial intelligence in Asia. India's hoary state-owned broadcaster has introduced two new anchors to deliver farming news to the pastoral far reaches of the country. Neither of them is human. But first… Three things you need to know today: • Apple is shutting down its Pay Later [installment-pricing plan]( • The FTC is suing Adobe, alleging the company misled customers [over subscriptions]( • China will screen Disney's latest Deadpool film [after barring earlier titles]( AI TV After years of watching unconvincing AI clones with stilted voices trying to present news, I'm astonished by how generative AI is changing the game. India's public service broadcaster Doordarshan — hardly the epitome of tech innovation — is delivering news to farmers via two realistic, soon-to-be multilingual AI avatars. The virtual anchors Krish and Bhoomi provide weather forecasts, commodity prices, farming trends and updates on agri-research and state welfare programs to millions of farmers through Doordarshan's Kisan channel. In Hindi, “kisan” means farmer. The animated AI bots take the script and deliver it in natural tones. For now, the tireless and ageless news-reading bots unveiled last month are limited to Hindi, the most prominent of India's nearly two dozen official languages. In time, the promise is that AI will help them speak 50 languages and thus address a wider swath of the population. Generative AI — which synthesizes text, images, audio or video based on prompts — is being used to fine-tune scripts and instantly translate content and interviews. Using a text prompt, the system can write a TV script or create a representative image to go with a story. With a few minutes of audio, such systems can also clone a voice. And it's only the beginning. The farming channel AI is a collaboration between real humans checking and curating the news and the synthetic anchors conveying it to the viewers, said Navneet Sehgal, chairman of Prasar Bharati which oversees Doordarshan. The audience response has been strong. He expects even more excitement when farmers start to get the broadcasts in their local languages — like Maithili, Bhojpuri or Magahi. AI anchors could soon debut on the main Doordarshan channels as well, he said. Last year, media conglomerate India Today Group unveiled Sana, an AI anchor that speaks multiple languages. "Sana works with a human surrogate editor," said Kalli Purie, group editorial director at India Today. The "future is fascinating and frightening, and it's here," she said at Sana’s launch. The same technology behind fake videos of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy surrendering to Russia or fake Taylor Swift supporting Donald Trump is also being harnessed to fill airwaves with legitimate news around the world. The headlong rush is upending the traditionally close, trusting relationship between the audience and those bringing them news and analysis on screen. There's fear that AI anchors can be tools to spread propaganda and disinformation, catching the audience off-guard as they scroll through social media content. In a country like India where hundreds of millions of users are new to personal devices and the internet, many viewers may not even realize the anchor is a bot. Fake news is more likely to spread if AI personas are mistaken for real newsreaders. Will farmers notice the difference? The ratings are not yet in, for however much they may be able to tell us. AI anchors come at a time when faith in those presenting the news is already at a nadir around the world. Anchors are no longer seen as the infallible purveyors of truth. So the threat posed by AI substitutes is hard to pin down. Human journalists are still getting out in the field to ferret out the news, interview subjects and report events. Alarm bells about ChatGPT aside, traditional journalism jobs like mine are safe. For now.—[Saritha Rai](mailto:srai33@bloomberg.net) The big story A year ago Alphabet Inc.’s Google combined its two elite teams working on AI — Google Brain and DeepMind — hoping to improve the company’s ability [to commercialize products]( while maintaining its work in foundational research. It’s not going as well as executives had hoped. One to watch [Watch Bloomberg’s Craig Trudell discuss Chinese approval for Tesla to test advanced driver-assistance systems on the streets of Shanghai.]( Get fully charged Foxconn’s share price finally reached the target founder Terry Gou set eight years ago, [thanks to AI.]( The US has nabbed almost one-third of all the investment that [flowed across borders since Covid struck.]( Hackers are extorting Snowflake customers for [as much as $5 million](. Activist investor Starboard Value is using its $500 million Autodesk stake [to push for board changes](. The US Navy will boost the use of [threat-detecting underwater AI](. Paytm is in talks to sell its [movie ticketing business to Zomato](. More from Bloomberg Bloomberg Screentime: The entertainment landscape is shifting rapidly. Cable empires are crumbling, streaming giants face new challenges and innovative forces are on the rise. Join Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles on Oct. 9-10 for look at the future of media. Network with industry titans, immerse in live experiences and enjoy a curated collection of local eats. Get your tickets today. [Learn More](. Get Bloomberg Tech weeklies in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends - [Q&AI]( for answers to all your questions about AI Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? 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