Watching the news is an almost instinctive activity for most adults. As soon as you wake up, you turn on the TV with the intention of informing yourself about the events while you prepare the rest of your morning. Well then, What would happen if the human you think you’re seeing on the screen doesn’t really exist? This is the case of KuwaitNewswho has introduced Fedha, his first TV personality generated by artificial intelligence.
Fedha appears before the public on the official Twitter account of KuwaitNews. “I am Fedha, the first presenter in Kuwait that works with artificial intelligence“he says in the publication. From here, we have a look at his physical appearance, as well as the voice chosen by the company to bring daily news to life.
But what reasons does the company have to look for a digital presenter? As described by Abdullah Boftain, deputy editor-in-chief of the Kuwaiti outlet, he comments that it’s a way to explore “new and innovative content” leveraging the capabilities of AI.
For its part, the image of Fedha generated by artificial intelligence offers a convincing physical appearance. Thus, it is likely that the average person does not ask questions regarding the origin of it, at least during short transmissions. Although its robotic movements are appreciable to some extent, it is a technology that is in an emerging state.
Artificial intelligence Fedha has aroused passions on the internet, but not all of them are positive
But artificial intelligence has not only attracted attention for its advanced technology, but also for its physical appearance. Kuwait News has chosen a blonde, blue-eyed model to present the region’s daily news. A design that, according to what they say, seeks to “represent everyone”, while using the old name as a base to refer to silver in Kuwaiti.
We always imagine robots to be silver and metallic in color, so we mix the two colors together.
Abdullah Boften
This same physical appearance would have been crafted to represent a diverse Kuwaiti and expatriate population, Boftain said. Something quite curious, considering that the percentage of European people in the region is 0.7%, compared to 41.4% dominant with mostly Persian ancestry.
This topic, of course, has not been the only thing that has interested Twitter users, including Kuwaiti journalists and the rest of the world. Many have pointed to the position of the Asian country in the ready freedom of the press, where it is positioned at number 158 among 180 countries. So, the need for artificial intelligence capable of presenting news suddenly takes on a darker dimensionoffering an anonymous face and easily manipulated by the chains and governments.
Of course, this is not counting the jobs that can be perfectly occupied by human beings with real needs. Instead, priority has been given to an image generated by artificial intelligence, economical, manageable and expendable. A step that brings us closer to automating jobs and entire careers.