DD Kisan, a Doordarshan channel dedicated to news and information sharing for farmers in the country, is going to embrace the artificial intelligence (AI) wave as it gears up to bring two AI anchors on the channel. The move will make it the first government TV channel of India to feature AI-powered digital human replicas to present news and information. The AI anchors are being introduced on the occasion of DD Kisan’s completion of nine years since its inception. Notably, the channel was launched on May 26, 2015.
According to a press release by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the two new AI anchors have been named AI Krish and AI Bhoomi. The duo will make their first appearance on DD Kisan on Sunday as the channel celebrates its ninth anniversary. These anchors can speak fifty Indian and foreign languages, as per the ministry.
The ministry introduced the AI anchors as computers which can look and function like humans. It further added that AI Krish and AI Bhoomi can read the news 24 hours and 365 days without taking a break or getting tired. Notably, DD Kisan is a pan-India channel which airs in different states of the country in their regional language.
The channel shares news and information about the latest agricultural research at national and global levels, trends in agriculture mandis, changes in the weather, and information related to government schemes. Some of the popular shows on the channel include Krishi Darshan, Mandi Khabar, Mausam Khabar, and Chaupal Charcha.
AI anchors are essentially computer-generated digital avatars resembling humans. These avatars are powered by different AI technologies that allow them to have text-to-voice generation capabilities as well as let them sync lip, eyes, head, and hand movements to the words being said.
India witnessed its first AI anchor in early 2023 when India Today Group introduced Sana for its Aaj Tak channel. Following its debut, Orissa-based OTV introduced AI-powered news anchor Lisa. Karnataka’s Power TV also launched AI anchor Soundarya last year. Later India Today announced five more AI anchors for its regional language channels.
However, India is not among the first to introduce this technology. China became the first country to introduce an AI news anchor in 2018 when the Xinhua news agency launched two AI Synthetic Anchors.
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