Co-existence of Human and AI Anchorpersons in Pakistani News Media

Abstract

The research investigates the phenomenon of coexistence between human and artificial intelligence anchorpersons in the Pakistani media industry. The study is steered by the major research question -- How do Pakistani journalists perceive the co-working environment of human and AI anchorpersons in newsrooms? A qualitative approach has been applied, and data were collected through in-depth interviews, via a semi-structured questionnaire from the working journalists of Pakistan. Findings highlight that perception of the majority of Pakistani journalist about co-working with AI anchorperson is optimistic and they admit the efficiency of technologically advanced digital anchor, but despite the perfect mechanical performance of artificially generated news anchor, human journalist can still surpass it with some unique humanistic qualities -- AI anchorpersons are productive and efficient, but they cannot change facial or vocal expressions during a live transmission of news segment, moreover digital anchorpersons are unable to probe the guest while conducting a program. In addition, the AI anchorperson is also unable to decipher the verbal or physical cues of a human anchorperson in a co-working situation.