Soundarya, Kannada’s first AI news anchor debuts on Power TV

Artificial Intelligence has finally entered Kannada newsrooms. On July 11, 2023, 24/7 Kannada news channel Power TV launched Soundarya, Kannada’s first AI news presenter. Calling herself a “robot anchor”, Soundarya opened her debut news show by talking about AI’s impact on the TV news industry. I am Soundarya.” Though Power TV introduced Soundarya as “South India’s first AI anchor”, many social media users were quick to point out that such an experiment had already been done by Malayalam and Telugu news channels. Power TV later modified its statement to call Soundarya “Kannada’s first AI news anchor”.