GMA Network news is embracing AI tech most horrible way: it recently announced that it would be utilizing two Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated sportscasters for the upcoming National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 99. Now while executives at GMA News might have thought having AI sportscasters sounded like a good idea on paper, it’s a terrible portent of a dystopian future, one that uses AI to create art, poetry, and the written word while regular humans are forced to work on repetitive, soul-numbing menial jobs to get by.
It’s mind-boggling that the people at GMA thought this was a good idea, especially when you consider what kind of personalities drive sportscasting. Courtside reporters like TJ Manotoc, Dyan Castillejo, et al bring passion and excitement to the game, things that we doubt robotic, AI-driven journalists like Maia and Marco can bring to the table.
There’s also the question of why a billion-peso company like GMA would rather use dispassionate, algorithm-generated reporters than pay talented Filipinos (and there are many) to announce and commentate games. It’s these exact AI shenanigans that have driven the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike in the US, where obscenely wealthy studios like Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney, among others, refuse to pay actors and talents their fair share, and instead want to use AI tech to replace them.
In case it’s not clear – this is such a terrible idea from GMA News, and most people agree. Their announcement of this AI garbage heap has garnered mostly negative reactions from social media, with many people pointing out the obvious reasons why this is such a bad, bad idea.
Heck, even Rising PBA star Javee Mocon, who commentates NCAA games in his spare time, knows why this so terrible, joking in Filipino to his fellow pro baller Rey Nambatac: “We no longer have jobs.”