Trust, Acceptance, and Artificial Intelligence News Anchors

Throughout the world, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become an integral part of everyday life and work. The emergence of intelligent media has resulted in significant changes to the news industry, largely due to the implementation of AI news anchors. The purpose of this study is to examine new audiences' perceptions of AI news anchors. A content analysis was conducted to determine how news audiences perceive AI news anchors. Comments posted on YouTube and Facebook videos that show AI news anchors reporting the news were analyzed. It was observed that AI news anchors have varying effects on their news audiences since they were first implemented in China in 2018. Findings show that 65% of all posted comments were negative, whereas 34% were positive. The results of this study were contradicting at times. For instance, many people consider AI news anchors to be fake because of their unrealistic movements, whereas others believe they resemble human newscasters in appearance. Furthermore, some viewers expressed concern that AI news anchors may be utilized by governments to promote propaganda or negative political messages. Moreover, findings indicate that news audiences are increasingly concerned that AI will result in the loss of jobs for real news anchors, deterring people from entering journalism or reporting professions.