Google opens applications for this year’s Startups Accelerator programme in India
Google on Thursday said that it has opened applications for this year's 'Startups Accelerator: AI First' programme in India.
With AI making an entry in varied fields, news channels are not far behind. After a national channel started using a AI-operated anchor for its weather reports, Kannada channel Power TV has now introduced its first robotic news presenter. She has been given the name Soundarya by the management team and she made her debut on Tuesday hosting a full news show.
Soundarya introduced herself on the first show by saying, “Hello everyone … A few of my colleagues (AI news presenters) started presenting news on some of the channels in north India. I am Soundarya, south India’s first robotic anchor by Power TV.”
The channel will feature the new AI presenter, Soundarya, in various news shows, to continue with the experiment and how it can be made better.
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A few other television networks in India nation have also developed their own AI-powered newsreaders. Lisa was introduced recently by Odisha TV, an Indian cable television network in Odisha as the first AI news presenter for OTV and Odisha. Viewers were mighty impressed with her excellent news presentation in both English and Odia the moment it went viral.
The first AI-generated news anchor in the country, Sana, was unveiled by the national news broadcasting channel Aaj Tak in March. “Bright, gorgeous, ageless, tireless who speaks multiple languages and can always be controlled,” this is how the group’s vice chairperson, Kalli Purie, had described her at the launch event attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The AI news anchors have a human-like appearance and are fed data that they can read using text-to-speech technology. Since its introduction in November 2022, AI-generated news broadcasters have been slowly making their mark. However, the viewers can easily figure out between an AI presenter and a human.
There is, however, a team of dedicated editors and producers at the back end to make her feat possible. Sana has human coaches/mentors and also a surrogate human editor. While some saw it as a turning point for journalism, others saw it as a curse.
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