ABC confirms it will not develop AI-generated newsreaders

The ABC has no plans to replace any of its on-screen newsreaders or journalists with artificial intelligence technology, representatives of the public broadcaster told a special inquiry on Tuesday morning.

“To be very clear, the guidance that we give to our editorial staff makes very, very clear that they are not to create replicas of people or their voices, without very careful consideration,” David Sutton, the ABC’s senior executive for policy and regulatory affairs said.

“I can envisage particular contexts in program making where that might be necessary. But fundamentally, there’s no plan to recreate our newsreaders or anything like that,” Sutton told the hearing.

The Joint Select Committee hearing into artificial intelligence is being held in Sydney on Tuesday morning. Representatives from the ABC are the first to appear. Head of legal for content at the ABC, Kate Gilchrist said there is a “lot at stake” for media companies.

That includes ensuring audiences understand what content is produced by the ABC, and to ensure that there is a “financial return” on content that public money has been used to create.

Currently, the ABC has no control over how its content is being used by AI “to control the integrity, accuracy, impartiality of the content, and the independence of the ABC”, Gilchrist said.

The ABC executives said the Epstein Files were a good example of how AI can enhance the role of journalists. It can help analyse very large collections of documents as a way of surfacing information for those journalists to then look more closely at, Sutton said.

“Enormous troves of documents, and I think half the world turned around and threw AI engines at that [the Epstein Files] much in the same way that I think they wish they could have done with the Panama Papers,” Sutton said.

The ABC has sought to negotiate arrangements with major tech companies to compensate them for their content, but those discussions have had little success so far, Sutton said.

“Some assistance in making that happen would be wonderful,” Sutton said.

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