Part 1: AI in Indian newsrooms: A three-part analysis

The face that stares back from the screen can pass off as a human news reader. The delivery is almost flawless, the intonation steady and the shift from Hindi to English seamless. This is Sana, India’s first AI news anchor, a digital phantom of algorithms and datasets presenting a news segment for Aaj Tak, one of India’s leading news channels. Sana was released in March 2023, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had the audacity to tell him she would seek his interview in the near future. Not something you would expect a freshly minted journalist to ever do.

In the controlled, air-conditioned quiet of the studio, she represents a clean, efficient, predictable future. But just beyond the studio doors lies the beautifully chaotic and stubbornly human reality of an Indian newsroom. A place of frantic phone calls, badgered and stained keyboards, passionate arguments, and the relentless flow of adrenaline amid all the planning and in the pursuit of the story, television rating points (TRPs) and web traffic.

 It is here, at the precise intersection of the algorithm’s cold logic and the journalist’s dogged instinct, that the future of Indian journalism is being written. Artificial Intelligence is no longer a far-off Silicon Valley buzzword. It is a ghost in the machine, a silent partner already at work in our largest media houses: A force that promises to revolutionise everything. From the monotony of transcription to the art of storytelling. Yet, as it quietly assimilates into the workflows that shape our national discourse, it forces a profound and urgent reckoning. 

The question is no longer if AI will transform the Indian newsroom, but how and at what cost. Are we striding towards a bold new world of hyper-efficient, data-driven journalism, or are we sleepwalking into an automated future where the core tenets of the craft — scepticism, ethics, and human judgement — are either simply ignored or rendered obsolete?

The adoption of AI in Indian newsrooms is a story of cautious experimentation. While the West has been debating the nuances of AI in journalism for nearly a decade, India’s media giants have, in recent years, finally moved from theory to application. The most visible manifestation has been the pantheon of AI anchors like Sana, or her counterparts at other networks like Lisa in Odisha or Bhoomi in Karnataka. While often seen as  novelty or even gimmickry, they represent a clear statement of intent and a powerful tool for multilingual broadcasting.

The real revolution, however, is happening behind the scenes, in the less glamorous but more impactful back-end operations. A significant majority of news executives see the highest priority for AI in tasks like tagging, copy-editing, transcription, and translation. 

In 2023, Hindustan Times Media Ltd. announced the formation of a 15-member AI team dedicated to building an AI-powered newsroom, focusing on everything from personalised content delivery to optimising revenue streams. Similarly, The Times of India has long used AI for content recommendations, tailoring news feeds to individual reader behaviour and generating 300-word reports from its army of reporters spread across the country.

This initial phase is largely focused on efficiency. AI is being used to automate the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that have traditionally bogged journalists down. It can summarise lengthy reports in seconds, translate articles to tap into India’s vast linguistic diversity, and analyse social media trends to gauge public sentiment. In a resource-stretched industry, this is significant. It promises to free up human journalists to focus on what they do best: finding stories, cultivating sources, and conducting in-depth investigations. Most importantly, adding nuance that AI can easily miss due to India’s diverse local contexts. Insufficient data in multiple Indian languages is another challenge that leads to deficiencies that humans-in-loop must bridge.

However, we are still a long way from an AI conducting a sensitive interview or breaking a complex investigative story. AI is the force multiplier or sometimes, just the errand boy. The adoption is incremental and a toe-dip into a very deep and fast-moving technological river.

ENDS

Tomorrow: The global scenario: Successes and cautionary notes for Indian news