The Generated Anchor: Startup Channel 1 presents AI-generated newscast

EXCLUSIVE: The presenter is in the studio, speaking directly to the camera, then cuts to a news segment in which a French-speaking man’s words come out of his mouth as English.

It’s one of the elements of an AI-produced newscast being launched later today by startup channel Channel 1, which will run on its own website, Channel1.ai, as well as on Crackle, Redbox Free Streaming and X/Twitter.

The Channel 1 startup from entrepreneur Adam Mosam and producer Scott Zabielski has a distribution deal with Chicken Soup for Soul Entertainment and plans to launch a FAST channel in February or March, followed by mobile and connected TV apps, of which the last incarnation will be. of viewers’ news diet.

Mosam, a tech entrepreneur and chief digital officer for Chicken Soup, put it differently than before Maximum headroomThrough experimentation, the technology has “reached a point where it’s pleasant to look at.”

“Not only is there the visualization, someone who can talk to you and deliver the news, but there are so many other core technologies that we can leverage to further enhance the experience of watching news,” he said.

What Mosam calls premiering tonight is the “showcase episode,” a pilot “that showcases everything from editorial commentary to technology.” We just felt it was important to prove that we could execute the idea and show it,” he said. He said the project has been self-financed so far, but they will raise capital soon. “

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He said Channel 1 will use content from three different sources: they will work with a yet-to-be-announced news agency, rely on content from independent journalists and create AI-generated news from “a reliable primary source”. B. a government document or SEC report “that we can compile and format for our audience.”

“We don’t collect primary data sources, but we process that data,” Mosam said.

The initial newscast will be a mix of licensed clips and fair-use content, while the anchors will actually be based on real people who have received compensation for the use of their likeness, he said.

The pilot’s debut comes at a time when networks like CBS News are devoting more resources to identifying AI deepfakes and other disinformation and even hiring so-called “forensic” journalists.

In turn, Channel 1 plans to place an icon in the corner of the screen that identifies the parts being generated. For example, the symbol appears when French words are translated into English.

“I think people are right to think that we need to be aware of this issue,” Mosam said. “This will be an issue that we will have to deal with as a society, because as technology improves, it will become easier for what we call ‘fake’ or ‘fake news’ to be generated or self-generated.”

He said that they “make it very clear in their content that the audience knows exactly what they’re seeing at all times when some form of AI customization has occurred.” He also said that “we have informed people at every step of our editorial process” and plan to hire an editor-in-chief within the next six months. Eleven people are currently working on the project.

“We’re not starting from the premise of, ‘Oh, we’re targeting these big cable news networks,'” Mosam said. “We start from a more fundamental idea and recognize that this technology exists. And as digital natives, we understand how to build this technology. We understand what we have to worry about.” He said there are also plans in the works for a system that would provide users with evidence of source material, “almost like a chain of custody of where we get our news from. “

Zabielski said, “We want the public to feel confident that this news is coming from reliable sources and that we’re just formatting and distilling it to fit our format for presenting it to the public.” First, the people who believe that this data is reliable. , because if people don’t trust it, they won’t want to see our news.

However, the use of AI has raised concerns in the news sector, not only because of the IP issues raised by the use of content in training models, but also because of the prospect of large numbers of employees being laid off. AI has been a sticking point in the recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes involving film and television contracts, while editors have drawn up tentative guidelines for using the technology.

Mosam said Channel 1’s production costs would be much cheaper than traditional cable news networks. And they have no doubt that technology poses a threat to today’s speakers.

Zabielski said that for anchors who only read teleprompters, “it’s hard to imagine that at some point the technology won’t be available to those people anymore.” But the reality is that most people in the news business are also journalists and reporters, who also appear in front of the camera. And that is not what we want to replace. These are the people who do the actual reporting. We still have to do this reporting, whether an avatar delivers it or not, we are the ones in front of the camera.

He noted that a news producer “might have a credible avatar that makes him a credible reporter without appearing on camera, but actually that’s his job, but he’s getting paid and his work is still being seen.” He also suggested that content licensing could provide a revenue stream for local news outlets that have been hollowed out across the country.

Mosam also said they are developing an anchor that will have “significantly more depth” than the AI-generated personalities already appearing in Korea, India and China. “So if you can figure out that anchor, it’s not just: Now you gave him a script and his lips moved. There’s a lot of technology behind this that you’d think each anchor would be its own version of Chat GPT. It would have its own storage capacity. It would have its own linguistics, its own tone. It will also be tailored for different parts of the world.”

Channel 1’s ultimate goal is a personalized app where users can customize everything from their news interests to the “style of anchor who likes to deliver the news to you,” Zabielski said.

Such personalization of news has also caused some consternation, as audiences are drawn to personalities and voices they want to hear, creating their own information bubble. But it’s a long-standing trend across cable TV and social media that predates AI.

Mosam said the app will allow users to “navigate the news in the same way someone might watch, say, TikTok.” And because you’re making decisions so quickly, unlike a streaming service you’d normally be on “When you’re watching a TV show or a movie, we get to know you pretty quickly and understand what you’re looking for and what kind of news you’re looking for . We can help educate you.”