Kuwait inaugurates era of realistic AI-generated news presenters in Arabia with debut of 'Fedha'

A Kuwaiti news outfit debuted the newest member of its team over the weekend. Unlike others at the station, this talking head, named "Fedha," is neither a dues-paying member of a union nor deserving of a parking spot. In fact, Fedha is not even a human being.

Kuwait News, an affiliate of the Kuwait Times, posted a video to Twitter Saturday depicting a modestly dressed white woman with blonde hair that introduced itself as "Fedha ... the first presenter in Kuwait who works with artificial intelligence."

The humanistic simulacrum then said in Arabic, "What kind of news do you prefer? Let's hear your opinions."

Abdullah Boftain, deputy editor in chief for Kuwait News, told AFP that Fedha is a test of AI's potential to both offer "new and innovative content" and present news bulletins to the outlet's 1.2 million Twitter followers in an appropriate Kuwaiti accent.

"Fedha is a popular, old Kuwaiti name that refers to silver, the metal. We always imagine robots to be silver and metallic in colour, so we combined the two," explained Boftain.

Boftain suggested that Fedha's appearance was intended to reflect the Near Eastern nation's "diverse" population of natives and expatriates, stressing, "Fedha represents everyone."

Fedha also represents an opportunity to help realize Goldman Sachs' prediction that AI will soon replace around 300 million jobs.

A recent report by investment bank Goldman Sachs indicated that a quarter of work tasks in the U.S. and Europe could be replaced by AI, in part because generative AI is now capable of generating new content "that is indistinguishable from human-created output."

This great replacement will impact various sectors, but not all equally. For instance, 46% of tasks in administrative and 44% in legal professions could reportedly be automated, but only 6% in construction can be taken over by AI.

Carl Benedikt Frey, future of work director at the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, told British state media, "The only thing I am sure of is that there is no way of knowing how many jobs will be replaced by generative AI."

"What ChatGPT does, for example, is allow more people with average writing skills to produce essays and articles," said Frey. "Journalists will therefore face more competition, which would drive down wages, unless we see a very significant increase in the demand for such work."

The Goldman Sachs report indicated that 26% of the arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media industry could possibly be automated by AI.

At Kuwait News, for instance, an AI-generated simulation scripted by ChatGPT could potentially serve as a full0time replacement for a flesh-and-bone script-reader.

The New York Post noted that Fedha, while possibly among the more lifelike, is not the first AI-generated news presenter.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua News revealed a virtual newsreader called Qiu Hao in 2018, dressed in a suit and tie. The humanistic simulacrum said, "I will work tirelessly to keep you informed as texts will be typed into my system uninterrupted."

Xinhua's first English AI anchor makes debutyoutu.be

Months later, Xinhua introduced what it claimed was the world's first female AI news anchor, known as Xin Xiaomeng.

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