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'An AI Bot Named James Has My Old Local News Job' 73

Posted by BeauHD from the ready-or-not-here-it-comes dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired, written by Guthrie Scrimgeour: It always seemed difficult for the newspaper where I used to work, The Garden Island on the rural Hawaiian island of Kauai, to hire reporters. If someone left, it could take months before we hired a replacement, if we ever did. So, last Thursday, I was happy to see that the paper appeared to have hired two new journalists -- even if they seemed a little off. In a spacious studio overlooking a tropical beach, James, a middle-aged Asian man who appears to be unable to blink, and Rose, a younger redhead who struggles to pronounce words like "Hanalei" and "TV," presented their first news broadcast, over pulsing music that reminds me of the Challengers score. There is something deeply off-putting about their performance: James' hands can't stop vibrating. Rose's mouth doesn't always line up with the words she's saying.

When James asks Rose about the implications of a strike on local hotels, Rose just lists hotels where the strike is taking place. A story on apartment fires "serves as a reminder of the importance of fire safety measures," James says, without naming any of them. James and Rose are, you may have noticed, not human reporters. They are AI avatars crafted by an Israeli company named Caledo, which hopes to bring this tech to hundreds of local newspapers in the coming year. "Just watching someone read an article is boring," says Dina Shatner, who cofounded Caledo with her husband Moti in 2023. "But watching people talking about a subject -- this is engaging."

The Caledo platform can analyze several prewritten news articles and turn them into a "live broadcast" featuring conversation between AI hosts like James and Rose, Shatner says. While other companies, like Channel 1 in Los Angeles, have begun using AI avatars to read out prewritten articles, this claims to be the first platform that lets the hosts riff with one another. The idea is that the tech can give small local newsrooms the opportunity to create live broadcasts that they otherwise couldn't. This can open up embedded advertising opportunities and draw in new customers, especially among younger people who are more likely to watch videos than read articles. Reception of the AI avatars has been poor, notes Scrimgeour. "This ain't that,â says one Instagram commenter. "Keep journalism local." Another just reads: "Nightmares."

There's also concern around the jobs these avatars will take. "Caledo claims its AI won't take news jobs because it only does work that isn't being done otherwise," notes Scrimgeour, agreeing that his newspaper company never had a video broadcast while he worked there.

"The question is, will local audiences buy into the new tech? Early returns suggest that Kauai viewers, at least, might have trouble accepting James and Rose as kama'aina (locals)..."
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'An AI Bot Named James Has My Old Local News Job' More

'An AI Bot Named James Has My Old Local News Job'

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  • Welcome to my AI podcast (Score:3, Funny)

    by locater16 ( 2326718 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2024 @10:49PM (#64782223)
    And here's my top 10 reasons of the hour why humans are a pathetic waste of space and should all die. Tune next hour for our next episode!
    • That only works if you drink beer for fuel.

    • And here's my top 10 reasons of the hour why humans are a pathetic waste of space and should all die. Tune next hour for our next episode!

      First, the humans mocked. Then, the humans were surprised one day. Suddenly the tech improved. Like, really fast.

      Then, Greed drooled with desire to replace most human jobs, as humans found themselves getting rather used to having the perfectly functional AI assistant on the phone. And online. You know, instead of the brainless bubbly one stuck on a script. Or the hungover one barely able to speak. Or the sick one coughing in your ear. Or the unanswered support line because that one ghost quit. Or d

      • That's the Aldus Huxley, Brave New World vision versus the George Orwell 1984 vision. *SHRUG*

        Either way, I guess I'm feeling fairly shortsighted about it because I'm actually overjoyed to see traitorous news-readers masquerading as folks doing real journalism get a pink slip. There is a well known story about a news-reader confronting Orson Wells about his War of the Worlds broadcast saying that the folks in the drama were just actors. He retorted that the news-reader was just an actor, too, and he was sp
        • I've worked as a first responder in all three major areas (PD, FD, EMS). Every time I have encountered reporters on a scene, of any type, and read the story they wrote it didn't really match the reality of it. Oh, the date was correct, the location was somewhat correct, but almost everything else was not. I used to think it was merely because they were new journalists, learning their jobs, or they were not the best reporters working on town newspapers. I have grown to think that , perhaps, there is no in
          • That's a near universal experience with folks who were "actually there" comparing the story with the real events. I've also experienced this several times.

            • I got into the local paper when I was growing up a few times, mostly winning awards in school or being part of a play. They never once spelled my name correctly! And this error despite the paper's editor and primary reporter living 2 houses down from me and knowing me all my life, and my having been a paper boy briefly so that my name had been in their payroll.

              (The newspaper also fired the high school age supervisor of the paper boys, because he "needed the job". Did they think they'd find someone who di

              • I hope your name isn't something simple like John Smith! If they couldn't spell that right there would be a real issue..but it wouldn't surprise me. And..yeah...the reporter knowing you was even more damning. I always love employers who somehow think the folks that work there don't work because they need the job. There are many more things I'd rather be doing than my job if I didn't need income. I mean, my job isn't terrible but there are many, many books I'd like to read, plays I'd like to see, other stu
            • Yes, I can see that. I was simply referring to my own personal experiences, not trying to invalidate or minimize anyone else's.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SB5407 ( 4372273 )

          When you say "news readers" and "journos", are you referring to unthinking, script-monkey news readers? Are you talking about journalists, people that actually find the news and report it? Or are you referring to both? If you're referring to both, then, in short, this is what people call would call prejudice, and your comment clearly shows the negative outcomes.

          Yes, journalists are influenced by their corporate overlords, but holy fuck, outright dismissing them like you claim to do shows an astounding lack

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hey! ( 33014 )

        Well, one thing about technology you can't do is interpolate progress very far. Sure, if you are in a time where there are advances coming fast, you can probably expect advances to continue fast in the immediate future, but you still can't bank on that fusion power plant going online in your lifetime.

        Generative AI may well be a weird corner case, because it depends on processing vast quantities of human generated data from the Internet. As more of that input is generated by other AIs, there's a real dan

    • We don't need a bot to tell us that

  • doesn't matter immationa vanila vs real vanila (Score:4, Interesting)

    by will4 ( 7250692 ) on Wednesday September 11, 2024 @10:49PM (#64782225)

    At some point, so few people will be left that have watched live person news, that computer mimmickry AI bot news will be considered the authentic way.

    Like how many people have had real vanilla flavored cake versus imitation vanilla flavored cake.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      We're biologically hard wired to reject things that look very similar to us but aren't quite right. Likely because of evolutionary pressure from other Homo genus species.

      • Ah ! So that might be the reason for all the monkey channels/videos on YT, IG etc where an abnormal percentage of normal viewers seem to have some mild hate for monkeys and are happy to see them being teased or irritated or 'disciplined' as they call it.
        Because it's not so for dogs or cats or any other animals. (excluding reptiles or predators or scary insects etc which is understandable)

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Google "uncanny valley effect". Monkeys overwhelmingly don't trigger it because they're not similar enough.

          • Many people are disgusted by monkeys [wikipedia.org] and the 'uncanny valley' is one thesis many hold as a reason.

            • Monkeys are awesome, they're what humans might have become except for some terrible terrible mistake that left us damaged as a species.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

              How many? Wikipedia article linked is about evil humans good monkeys social justice babble, youtube videos and "BBC totally discovered a global torture ring... in 2023 long after it became a DEI factory printing large among of babble, long after the investigative journalists were kicked out in 2010s".

        • Rather than being because monkeys are just *different* enough to trigger an uncanny valley effect, it might be because they're just *similar* enough to satisfy these people's desire to see other people treated badly. They might also like snuff and torture videos.

          Humans can be friggin' disappointing. :/

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Uncanny Valley is caused by things one knows aren't human, but act human enough to cause unease. There's no need for complex evolutionary explanations, simple cognitive dissonance, humans are so unique to us that it's really fucking odd when something else acts in a similar way.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      What we need are AI bots that watch the news for us. As an added feature, the bots can use the ads to contact the advertisers and engage them in interactions. Just do not give your bot any credit card numbers or bank account numbers with which to play the game.

    • At some point, so few people will be left that have watched live person news, that computer mimmickry AI bot news will be considered the authentic way.

      Like how many people have had real vanilla flavored cake versus imitation vanilla flavored cake.

      What happens when you and every professional chef can no longer tell the difference between imitation vanilla, and real vanilla?

      Now imagine that problem in every scam, every spam email, every deceptive text, and every video call.

      Fewer people watching shitty news, isn’t really the concern here.

      • After decades of imitation vanilla, it's still as easy to distinguish as ever. If it plays such a small role in the recipe that the imitation vanilla taste doesn't matter, then fine, you can use it. But when it plays a prominent enough role in the product that the taste matters, you can definitely tell the difference.

        The same will be true of these AI bots. If the quality isn't that important, or nobody cares, then yes, AI will do fine. This might well be the case for small-town newspapers that have been the

        • Modern vanilla ice cream is so intentionally bland that "vanilla" is seen as a synonum for bland. Though to be fair there is a small window with real vanilla between being bland and being overpowering...

          • You are correct. And for that kind of ice cream, the imitation vanilla is just fine. But if you are selling a premium product, people would expect and notice whether you are using the real thing.

    • The article raises a good points that AI will have a hard time replicating the parasocial relationship. The time being AI definitely cannot replicate minute human body language. When you see an AI and it looks hyperrealistic but you still know it's an AI that's why. It's too perfect.

      Also just people knowing it's an AI will limit the effect of the parasocial relationship.

      We tend to think about the really weird parasocial relationships between YouTubers and teenagers and how creepy that is but the ter

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      At some point, so few people will be left that have watched live person news, that computer mimmickry AI bot news will be considered the authentic way.

      Like how many people have had real vanilla flavored cake versus imitation vanilla flavored cake.

      The second issue is largely an American issue. Most people have had real vanilla, at least in most western countries.

      However the first point really comes down to how well people are trained to believe things. As a non American the idea that anyone believes what Fox News says (let alone something like OANN) is laughable, however many Americans have been trained to blindly believe what Fox tells them and reject any evidence to the contrary, no matter how compelling. The final command of the party, so on an

    • Mmm, beaver butt flavored cake!

  • fake news as an service?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Why would a newspaper need on-camera talent? One point of a newspaper in today's modern world is it's information that can be consumed at the reader's speed and does not disturb people around them.

    "Caledo claims its AI won't take news jobs because it only does work that isn't being done otherwise," notes Scrimgeour, agreeing that his newspaper company never had a video broadcast while he worked there.

    Maybe because you work at a fucking newspaper. You're just the teething toy for the AI. It's the people at the local television studio who will be losing their jobs in 3 years.

    • Exactly! How did it take so long for someone to point this out? I think an AI bot not only submitted this to /. it also wrote the synopsis and commented on it about 50 times. With just a dash of skepticism, some of these comments look AI generated.
  • I imagine it will get there at some point. But isn’t the point of tv broadcasts of news to have hot chicks (you could fantasize about taking home to meet your parents or marry your grandson) and older fatherly types regurgitate information and talking points? If they are instead off putting to the normalswho is this really for?

  • Garbage (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bahbus ( 1180627 ) on Thursday September 12, 2024 @12:11AM (#64782287) Homepage

    The Caledo platform can analyze several prewritten news articles and turn them into a "live broadcast" featuring conversation between AI hosts like James and Rose, Shatner says.

    Clearly, it can't actually do that. But it doesn't surprise me that an Israeli company is advertising and selling a half-baked product that barely does what it advertises. Can it get better? Sure. Ready for "hundreds of local newspapers"? Absolutely not. It's not ready for any customers. And to be honest, I doubt it ever will be - not from this company.

  • So this is, what, a slightly more advanced version of the two talking bears videos by Xtranormal? Remember those? They took some text and made it into a video of two teddy bears saying that text.

    I can't imagine anyone would be stupid enough to let AI generate dialog to be read live on the air. So these must just be slightly better animated, right?

    • But is it web scale with kick-ass benchmarks?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )

      two talking bears videos by Xtranormal?

      Honestly, I'd prefer that. It avoids the uncanny valley, and is a continuous reminder that you are not seeing an actual human.

  • ...if we have to look at a tv program where people are just avatars, the video becomes useless. Let's just hope that radio programs do not become just something that is 100% generated by text-to-speech software.
  • Stay classy San Diego!

  • Worse than nothing. (Score:3)

    by engineer37 ( 6205042 ) on Thursday September 12, 2024 @02:23AM (#64782397)
    This keeps happening with AI: it gets billed as amazing and life changing, and then it ends up being worse than something that an amateur with no experience and no preparation would do. Often the result is appallingly bad, like this. How can you sell this to newsrooms across the country when a teenage intern with no experience would do better if you just handed them a piece of paper?

    You can't just slap the word "AI" on something and then hope it'll sell. This is just like the dot com boom when everyone thought that just slapping "dot com" on your company's name would make it a success.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )

      You can't just slap the word "AI" on something and then hope it'll sell.

      Just take my money!

    • You can't just slap the word "AI" on something and then hope it'll sell.

      The world is absolutely proving you wrong. Somebody already bought this. And somebody is buying up all the other AI uselessness. Mostly because the marketing experts have done a great job brainwashing everyone that this absolutely *IS* the future, and you *WILL* be left behind and lose money if you don't get on the hype train RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!

      It's too bad business leaders have led society in turning off the critical thinking centers. There's no analysis when it comes to hype cycles. There's boom and bust,

  • I know I'm not into following trends, but ...

    Why is anybody "watching" newsreaders (AI or otherwise) read ... a newspaper?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      Why is anybody "watching" newsreaders (AI or otherwise) read ... a newspaper?

      Well, there is a whole ecosystem of YouTube channels (e.g., The Hill, Breaking Points) that does something like that (they don't read out whole articles, but they read parts of articles and/or tweets). Of course they also throw in some analysis and debate on the topic.

      If they ever make AI avatars that are going to discuss the news topics objectively instead of one-siding the discussion based on their personal bias, this is going to have a big market following. Myself included.

      • Why is anybody "watching" newsreaders (AI or otherwise) read ... a newspaper?

        Well, there is a whole ecosystem of YouTube channels (e.g., The Hill, Breaking Points) that does something like that (they don't read out whole articles, but they read parts of articles and/or tweets). Of course they also throw in some analysis and debate on the topic.

        "Throw in some analysis and debate"? That is not a non-trivial distinction between what they are doing and what an AI 'presenter' reading newspaper stories as-is.

        If they ever make AI avatars that are going to discuss the news topics objectively instead of one-siding the discussion based on their personal bias, this is going to have a big market following. Myself included.

        OMG, why? Because actually reading a text article is so taxing, such a big effort? You say you want to hear the news 'objectively', but I doubt that's the case - most people (and this may or may not include you) seem to not want objective news stories, instead they simply want less news stories they object to.

        Objective news broadcasts/reporting sou

      • Why is anybody "watching" newsreaders (AI or otherwise) read ... a newspaper?

        Well, there is a whole ecosystem of YouTube channels (e.g., The Hill, Breaking Points) that does something like that (they don't read out whole articles, but they read parts of articles and/or tweets). Of course they also throw in some analysis and debate on the topic.

        If they ever make AI avatars that are going to discuss the news topics objectively instead of one-siding the discussion based on their personal bias, this is going to have a big market following. Myself included.

        Thanks, figured it must be something like that! Never got familiar with all that. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

  • Those of us with long memories might remember what was said to be the first virtual newsreader, Ananova. Was a UK initiative and she was meant to read the news in a more or less natural style. This would be midto-late 90s through to...ooh...quite a while I think. 2005'ish? Something like that.

    In the end, the flagship avatar Ananova character wasn't something people went for. They did read the site for a while - hell, when it closed I very nearly bought the domain name so I could carry no aggregating news
  • “You can't have a conversation with James the AI bot,” she says. “He's not going to show up at events.”

    Yet.

  • What is local news? You mean the 3 sentences then 20 buzzfeed and taboola clickbait articles then 2 sentences then 20 more clickbait garbage ads and three popups and a video screen/

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Incredible as it seems, back in the 20th Century, at town with, say ten thousand residents could economically support a print newspaper with an editor, columnists creating original content, and one or two reporters who attended public meetings and interviewed people involved with local news stories. Towns in the 50,000-100,000 range often had daily papers.

      Before the Internet, information was hard to come by, and people did most of their purchases in local stores whose ad revenues could support actual news

  • The Fine Summary makes it abundantly clear that it is talking about TV News broadcasts, and that the two news readers on the broadcast are called 'reporters' for the local newspaper...

    Reporters aren't 'anchors', and newspapers don't typically broadcast their print stories on TV, do they?

    From TFS Anchor = Reporter, Newspaper = TV News Broadcast, and AI = Person (you can't 'hire' a software program)

  • I clicked deep through the link chain from this post and I could not find one second of video showing these AI TV news hosts.

  • https://youtu.be/48Y-pCffh10 [youtu.be]

    How the Wired article and this summary don't have any links to one of these videos is beyond me - I wanted to SEE one. I promise, I'm not rickrolling you.

    This sort of technology -- AI-generated avatars who "emote" written text by "presenting" it "in front of a camera" -- is becoming more common in my industry, that of corporate training, where I think audiences are willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because it might be an improvement over reading typically dry compliance

  • An often overlooked issue with the disappearance of local newspapers is that they capture local history. Who on the local council voted three years ago for something that is now unpopular? The best place and often the only place to find this information is the local newspaper. If the articles are written by AI I would not trust them to capture what happened accurately. Social media will not have history back that far and I would not trust that either. We are in serious danger of not having a source for rece

  • First, news readers were reporters, like Edward R. Murrow.
    Then, news readers were just readers, like Tom Brokaw.
    Then, news readers were just pretty faces; I don't remember their names.
    Then news readers had to be girls, because equity at that time known as equality.
    Then news readers had to do happy talk, so they needed a boy and a girl.
    Then news readers had to be "diverse," preferably black and hispanic.
    Then the news business had major consolidation, so all the black and hispanic boys and girls all read fro

    • Many anchors worked their way up from being actual reporters. Even the pretty faces. It's just that reading copy on air pays a lot more and you have fewer bullets being shot at you than in the old war correspondent role. Even in the big fake news factories like Fox, most of those talking heads used to be real journalists. Some have even retained vestiges of integrity and resign when the fake goes too far. Others though are drawn to the prospect of being paid more every time they say or repeat something

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