Talking heads

The announcement by GMA Network of its plan to introduce virtual sportscasters powered by artificial intelligence (AI) drew all sorts of reactions, particularly from the journalism community. The National Union of Journalists sounded resigned to the inevitability of AI in the newsroom, but expressed hope network management will use AI to help journalists do their job better and not to replace them.

“While AI is inevitable, already being used, and can be a tool to make newsrooms more efficient, this decision – done in the context of stagnant pay, as well as layoffs and departures from the industry – does little to allay concerns of job security in the media. There is no doubt that media workers need reskilling to adapt to changes in the industry and we hope that GMA Integrated News has plans for this alongside their announcement of their AI news presenters.”

The GMA AI sportscasters who will replace humans are named Maia and Marco. They are nothing new. A quick Google search reveals we are, in fact, late in adopting the technology in the newsroom.

China was the first country in the world to introduce AI news presenters in 2018, delivering a bulletin for China’s state-run Xinhua news agency – one speaking Chinese and the other speaking English.

India followed, launching the AI-powered anchor Sana, who now presents bulletins several times a day on the India Today Group’s Aaj Tak news channel.

Taiwan’s FTV News has had an AI weather presenter.

In 2018, Japan launched Erica, a lifelike android designed to look like a 23-year-old woman, as a TV news anchor. According to Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University and Erica’s creator, the android will replace a human news anchor on the airwaves.

Erica the android can capably recite scripted writing and sit in a chair, making her about as qualified for television as some current human anchors…

“What may set Erica apart from other artificial intelligence, however, is her charisma,” Ishiguro said. “Erica is capable of holding a conversation with humans, thanks to a combination of speech-generation algorithms, facial-recognition technology and infrared sensors that allow her to track faces across a room…”

In 2020, cable channel MBN in Korea started to use an AI announcer who was almost identical to a human announcer Kim Ju-ha in her looks and the sound of her voice, even mimicking small gestures similar to ones that Kim would make, such as fiddling with a pen in her hand during reporting.

“I was created through deep learning 10 hours of video of Kim Ju-ha, learning the details of her voice, the way she talks, facial expressions, the way her lips move and the way she moves her body,” said AI Kim. “I am able to report news exactly the way that anchor Kim Ju-ha would.”

“Using AI anchors, we are able to quickly deal with natural disasters and other emergencies, and even report throughout the day,” said MBN, citing the benefits that will come in cutting labor and production costs.

In Indonesia, TVOne introduced Nadira and another AI news anchor, Sasya. They can read the news in several languages.

Scary indeed for broadcast journalists in mid-careers who have no fallback positions in case AI renders them jobless.

For newscast anchors who do not cover and just read off a script, this AI development makes no difference. Viewers will watch similar talking heads. Some human news anchors even have day jobs doing things other than journalism.

Some decades ago, when I was a young newswriter and reporter at the newsroom of the pre martial law ABS-CBN, I wondered why someone who works for just 30 minutes reading the script I worked on for hours was getting paid with more zeros in his check than I can imagine.

But the time for change has come. Finally, newscasts and breaking news reporting no longer require nattily dressed announcers with bloated egos to do the honors.

Indeed, breaking news reports may not even emanate from the newsroom. Last Saturday, when Metro Manila was hit by a heavy downpour towards noon, we learned about the flooding of EDSA in front of Camp Aguinaldo that stopped traffic from ordinary people who posted photos on X and Facebook.

Today’s generation of journalists can keep their jobs only if they are able to contribute more than mere reporting or reading a press release. They must become adept in digital journalism or how to utilize the vast reservoir of information stored in data storage facilities to provide context to the news. They must know how to use their smart mobile phones to shoot, edit, and report a story in real time. The one I see who is all over social media and adjusting well to the new demands for journalists is ABS-CBN’s Jacque Manabat.

Even print journalists must be able to produce video reports and documentaries that will help explain an issue or an event. A good example is the excellent work being done by the New York Times videographers, producers and writers.

And speaking of the NYT, it recently disbanded its entire sports department, a shocking development. The shuttering of the sports desk, which has more than 35 reporters and editors, is a tectonic shift for a major daily.

As for GMA using AI for sportscasting, it is just the beginning. The newscasts will inevitably be next for AI anchors.

I am not sure the AI sportscasters will be as good as Dick Ildefonso in the olden days, or Sev Sarmenta in current times. And I would prefer to see the real Gretchen Ho reporting a sports event rather than her AI double.

If we had newscasters like Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather, who actually covered the news and were rightfully journalists, AI anchors would be difficult to justify. But if they are just news readers or talking heads, it will be cheaper to employ AI and use the savings to pay better salaries to the folks at the salt mines of every newsroom, the guys who actually do the hard work.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X or Twitter @boochanco.