South Korea’s first AI news anchor make debut

South Korea cable channel MBN introduced the first artificial intelligence (AI) news anchor last week.

This virtual anchor is modeled after the MBN news anchor Kim Joo Ha, and fully controllable by the company.

It is said that the virtual news anchor (AI Kim) is almost identical to the real Kim, both in her looks and the sound of her voice, even mimicking small gestures similar to ones that Kim would make, such as fiddling a pen during reporting.

“I was created through deep learning 10 hours of video of Kim Joo 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 Joo Ha would.”

An MBN official said using AI anchors enable quick news delivery in times of emergency for 24 hours non-stop, reported Korea Joongang Daily.

On 6 November, Kim ran a side-by-side test with AI Kim during a live broadcast, with reading some sample lines from the news. The AI news anchor repeated each word perfectly without any hiccups.

“The pronunciation is correct, but the emotional part seems to be a little bit less like a human,” Kim said.

“Of course, an AI anchor can deliver the news faster than humans, but we’ll have to wait and see whether they can also capture feelings and emotions.”

Hinting at the end of the trial that she hopes the technology will not be perfected so soon.

Conclusion

We have no doubt that artificial intelligence is very useful in all industries as more research is being done to advance it. Meanwhile, it looks like we can no longer deny the fact that advanced technology is slowly substituting our job.

Do we really need AI technology if it’s going to replace our job? We’d like to hear all about your opinion in the comments!