Odisha gets 1st AI-generated news anchor ’Lisa’ | Watch

An Odisha-based private news channel Odisha TV on Sunday launched an AI-generated news anchor named 'Lisa'. An artificial woman clad in Odisha's handloom saree will present news both in Odia and English for OTV Network's television and digital platforms, a company release said.

As per the company's statement, OTV is gifting Odia television journalism its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) news anchor, Lisa, it said.

Though Lisa can speak in many languages, for the time being, she will only present news in Odia and English for the network's television and digital platforms.

As per the release, “Efforts are underway to make Lisa more proficient in Odia in the coming days. You can find and follow Lisa on all the prominent social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, among others.”

The company's Digital Business Head, Litisha Mangat Panda said that training Lisa in Odia was a huge task, which we could achieve. 

"However, we are still working on it. We are hoping to get her trained to the level in which she could interact with others easily, she said. 

Earlier, in April, Kuwait media outlet, Kuwait news had debuted their first artificial intelligence (AI) generated news presenter ‘Fedha’. "Fedha" appeared on the Twitter account of the Kuwait News website on Saturday as an image of a woman, her light-coloured hair uncovered, wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt. Kuwaiti News is affiliated with the Kuwait Times, founded in 1961 as the Gulf region's first English-language daily.

Meanwhile, the rapid rise of AI globally has raised the promise of benefits, such as in health care and the elimination of mundane tasks, but also fears, for example over its potential spread of disinformation, threat to certain jobs, and to artistic integrity.

(With inputs from PTI)