A Kuwaiti media outlet has introduced a virtual news presenter named “Fedha,” generated using artificial intelligence. Fedha is depicted as an image of a woman with light-coloured hair, wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt, and is planned to read online bulletins on the Kuwait News website’s Twitter account. This move is seen as a test of AI’s potential to offer “new and innovative content,” according to Abdullah Boftain, the deputy editor-in-chief of the publication and website, who further stated that Fedha could adopt the Kuwaiti accent in the future.
Kuwait News, the website that introduced Fedha, merged with Kuwait Times in 2022. The latter was established in 1961 as the first English-language daily in the Gulf region. Boftain named the presenter “Fedha,” a popular, old Kuwaiti name that means silver, reflecting the country’s diverse population of Kuwaitis and expatriates.
The rapid advancement of AI worldwide has promised various benefits, such as in healthcare and the automation of mundane tasks, but has also raised concerns about its potential to spread disinformation and threaten certain jobs and artistic integrity.
