Artificial Intelligence (AI) has finally entered Kannada newsrooms. On July 11, 2023, 24/7 Kannada news channel Power TV launched Soundarya, Kannada’s first AI news presenter.
Calling herself a “robot anchor”, Soundarya opened her debut news show by talking about AI’s impact on the TV news industry. “AI is leaving its footprint in every industry, and the TV news industry is no different. Robot anchors have already taken North Indian news channels by storm and a few of my counterparts have created a stir. Now, south India will get its first ever robot news anchor through Power TV. I am Soundarya.”
Though Power TV introduced Soundarya as “South India’s first AI anchor”, many social media users were quick to point out that such an experiment had already been done by Malayalam and Telugu news channels. Power TV later modified its statement to call Soundarya “Kannada’s first AI news anchor”.