Thailand’s first female presenter created by AI

With human features and a gentle voice, the Natcha presenter made her debut on Thai television this Monday and became the first informant created by artificial intelligence (AI) in the Southeast Asian country.

The news program “News Alert”, on the Nation TV channel, started its program with Natcha, black-haired and dressed in a blue suit, dictating the headlines of political information.

Natcha, who is identified by a banner as the “AI presenter”, will soon be accompanied by another AI-generated reporter, Nitchan.

“AI reporters will help support the work of our editorial department, allowing (human) reporters more time to focus on gathering and verifying information,” Nation TV CEO Apirawee Pichayadecha announced last week.

The director of the Thai channel, part of the media conglomerate Nation Group, assured that her new AI reporters will also serve as ambassadors for the channel, one of the country’s main channels, and will participate in other news.

“The most important thing is that AI has no language barriers and therefore can provide unlimited information to viewers without any restrictions,” Apirawee stressed about his new workers.

The use of AI-generated presenters is on the rise, mainly in Asia.

In 2018, China’s Xinhua News Agency put Qiu Hao on the air and made him the world’s pioneering AI host.

Since then, other countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan already have AI-generated anchors in their main news broadcasts.