- A TV presenter was revealed to be AI generated
- The stunt was part of the Channel 4 documentary Will AI Take My Job? Dispatches, which aired on October 20 in the UK
- Documentary investigates how AI automation is reshaping the workplace and is now available to stream
There’s no doubt that AI usage is increasing in the entertainment world and the best streaming services, but UK broadcaster Channel 4 has taken that one step further by unveiling Britain’s first AI TV presenter.
In the new documentary Will AI Take My Job? Dispatches, which first aired on October 20, the presenter was revealed to be AI-generated in its closing moments. As our host tells us, “I’m not real. In a British TV first, I’m an AI presenter. Some of you might have guessed: I don’t exist, I wasn’t on location reporting this story. My image and voice were generated using AI.”
Head of news and current affairs, specialist factual and sport at Channel 4 Louisa Compton added in a press statement: “The use of an AI presenter is not something we will be making a habit of at Channel 4 – instead our focus in news and current affairs is on premium, fact checked, duly impartial and trusted journalism – something AI is not capable of doing.
“But this stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be – and how easy it is to hoodwink audiences with content they have no way of verifying.”
Yet it’s potentially too little, too late for Channel 4 to present such a real danger and immediately recant it. Viewers are already likening the experience to a Black Mirror episode, and I’m not buying it as a one-off experiment.
Opinion: Channel 4’s AI TV presenter stunt is a lesson we need to learn, but will we?
As one viewer said on X/Twitter: “A twist! In #Dispatches! It’s like Black Mirror!” They’re not wrong. The new documentary is crafted with more shrewd intent and cunning reveals than most TV shows or movies we’ve consumed in the last few years, and I think we’ll take the wrong message away from it.
It’s probably fairly clear by now, thanks to *gestures vaguely around*, that us humans don’t have the best sense of judgement. As I wrote when AI actress Tilly Norwood began to make waves in Hollywood, “I can’t help thinking of that viral quote from Joanna Maciejewska when it comes to the likes of Tilly Norwood: ‘I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.'”
Where is Norwood now, other than an old news story we’ve already forgotten, lost in the never-ending digital cycle of information? My best guess is that we’ll be outraged by Channel 4’s stunt for all of 30 collective seconds before we forgivingly move on, forgetting it has ever happened at all.
Frankly, that’s not good enough. Not only do we need to do more – industry professionals, media outlets, audiences, the lot – to get the best balance of AI in entertainment possible, but this stunt has likely opened the door for more talent to be generated rather than hired. As Norwood and Channel 4 have proved, we’re at the tip of a dangerous iceberg.
Look through any TechRadar coverage by my brilliant colleagues and you will find many exceptional uses for AI, in and out of creative fields. However, AI is not needed when it comes to talent access or documentary storytelling. In fact, I’d say it’s a case of less is more.
Let’s strive to make fantastic creators’ lives easier when it comes to making the things we love… not wiping them out altogether. I have a feeling I’ll be saying this repeatedly, for many years to come, until I’m blue in the face.
Will AI Take My Job? Dispatches can be streamed on Channel 4 now in the UK, while international viewers needing a VPN to do so.
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