On Wednesday, ERT – Greece’s state-owned broadcaster – unveiled the country’s first ever virtual TV presenter powered by AI (artificial intelligence).
The virtual TV presenter, dubbed “Hermes” after the ancient Greek messenger of the Gods, was shown reading a short message from ERT’s Studio 4, where the upcoming political leaders’ debate will be hosted ahead of the Greek elections on May 21.
Greece is not the first country to have experimented with an AI TV presenter. Kuwait also unveiled a version in April this year year. Whether the trend catches on as supplement or even replacement for human newsreaders, or will largely be just a gimmick, remains to be seen, but it certainly raises interesting questions for the journalism and tech sectors.
Greece unveils first virtual TV presenter
“Ladies and gentlemen, good evening!” said Hermes in his first ever TV address. “Thank you for your presence in Studio 4 of ERT. It is the studio which in a few days will host the political leaders’ debate moderated by Giorgos Kouvaras.”
“Normally he should be doing this presentation, but due to workload they brought me in. The truth is, all I asked for was to do a pilot show. But it seems I gave them ideas. They want to always follow the latest technology,” continued the virtual TV presenter which relies on AI technology.
ERT implied that Hermes may play a role in press coverage of the upcoming Greek elections, although the details given were quite vague.
Hermes concluded his first TV appearance by saying “I ask you to show understanding for any mistakes, your complaints to my programmer, good afternoon.”
A new trend?
Hermes is not the first AI generated virtual TV presenter to make an appearance on viewers’ screens this year. Last month, Kuwait News unveiled their own virtual News presenter called “Fedha”.
A video was posted on Kuwait News’ Twitter account on April 8 showing a virtual blonde woman in a black blazer and white T-shirt speaking in Arabic.
“I’m Fedha, the first presenter in Kuwait who works with artificial intelligence at Kuwait News. What kind of news do you prefer? Let’s hear your opinions,” said the virtual news reader in Arabic.
أول مذيعة في #الكويت تعمل بالذكاء الاصطناعي
• #فضة.. مذيعة #كويت_نيوز الافتراضية
• ما هي نوعية الأخبار التي تفضلونها بتقديم #فضة زميلتنا الجديدة؟ .. شاركونا آراءكم pic.twitter.com/VlVjasSdpb
— كويت نيوز (@KuwaitNews) April 8, 2023
Over the past few months, interest in AI has exploded, with new developments in the technology rarely out of the news cycle for more than a few days.
Millions of users have been experimenting with new AI chatbots, models, and platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney that can generate texts and images based on human prompts and inputs.
The rapid expansion of AI technology has created optimism and apprehension in equal measure. On the one hand, there is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding AI, which many technology experts expect will play a positive role in fields as diverse as medicine, computer science, and entertainment.
On the other hand, there are serious concerns that AI could make certain professions obsolete leading to job losses, spread misinformation, or even pose an existential threat to continued human existence itself.
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