Jimwell Kenneth Tanay
Photo courtesy | GMA News Facebook Page
The notion that artificial intelligence (AI) serves as a complementary tool rather than a complete substitute for human work is a concept that is becoming blurry as concerns arise when this advancement encroaches on sensitive boundaries to the extent of endangering professions while benefiting only the privileged.
Amidst the recent social media uproar surrounding Global Media Arts (GMA) network's introduction of Maia and Marco as the inaugural AI sportscasters during the opening day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 99 Men's Basketball Tournament, there is a growing sentiment among the public that their inclusion in the landscape of Philippine journalism is seen as a disruptive innovation rather than a welcome addition.
Indeed, AI has been able to assist people in their varied tasks, resulting in increased human efficiency and convenience. AI aids, learns, and automates, offering convenience in so different aspects. Now, it is now being used by many in their attempt to replicate life, or, at the very least, many of its facets.
In recent years of unregulated and unprecedented advancement, AI has been used to "replace" people with cheaper services. Many view this as a threat rather than an advantage to many professions, particularly in the fields of art, academia, and, more recently, the media.
Another salt to the wound
In the already congested broadcasting industry, the hand that controls it squeezes in fleshless competitions. Before, the mouths that feed on the crumbs of unjust compensation can only scavenge for what may remain today. This might just be the projection of the sportscasting future as the GMA network spearheaded this unlikely revolution.
From the ABS-CBN network shutdown under the Marcos regime in 1972 and under the global pandemic in 2020, media practitioners, especially sports journalists in the country, are now again facing a familiar yet new-faced foe—the rise of AI-generated substitutes.
According to Payscale Philippines, broadcast journalists in the country earn an hourly rate of P90.44. Although this figure may still differ based on the nature of employment, it is outstandingly insufficient to live a sustainable life. Nevertheless, it is disheartening to observe that our truth-tellers dive to perilous extents yet are remunerated inadequately for their efforts. What can be more surprising and disappointing is, while broadcast journalists suffer these inhumane wages, there are now impending job displacement threats as AI sportscasters are now being utilized for sports reports. Therefore, It is important to note that the public service of media works, albeit anchored to fighting social injustices, does not mean free.
Moreover, in a country where numerous media practitioners are displaced, integrating AI sportscasters is an untimely innovation unparalleled to the employment status of journalists in the Philippines. Right now, it is counter-intuitive; another salt to the wound of our suffering sports journalists.
Sportscasting dehumanization
Filipinos adore sports. The country even declares unspoken holidays when Pacquiao is to knock out a challenger in a round or two, or when bets are all over the place during Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Finals. How will AI sportscasters give a human face to these stories that are highly sensory? It is unsettling to imagine that while the Filipinos’ adrenaline is over the ceiling through sports victories and losses, the only justice sports journalism in the country can offer is artificial and automated sportscasts. Automated sportscasts that could have been reported by those who relate and experience sports as Filipino fanatics—the human sportscasters.
The unveiling of Maia and Marco to the world is a newsroom crisis that one of the biggest Philippine news networks is yet to justify and systemize. From how the Filipinos have reacted to their courtside sneak peek, there’s no denying that the impact of an automated sportscast varies largely from how an authentic and human broadcast is embraced by a nation that worships sports.
The existence of journalism roots exactly from this very reason: to breathe life into simple words. Now that Pandora’s Box is opened and AI has been introduced to the media landscape, human broadcasters are now doomed to a lifelong competition between man and machine. Sadly, this also means risking the life and soul of newscasts. And in the far future, we may be the lucky generation to witness the extinction of a threatened profession.
Exploited before, and confronted by the debut of AI broadcasters now, an imperative question arises: where will our human sportscasters stand?
When con broadcasters are now at the forefront of reporting human experience, we might just be on our first step towards dehumanizing sportscasting and, in the long run, dehumanizing journalism.
In GMA’s defense
GMA Network Senior Vice President Oliver Victor Amaroso was quick to temporarily alleviate the hyper-swelling mess they have initiated stating that their AI sportscasters are merely “presenters, not journalists'”.
Perhaps a good save for the fools, but not on the watch of the affected media practitioners. Cherry-picking an alternative term for an endangered profession will not erode the fact that GMA network has made a decision that may impose looming threats to Philippine journalism at large.
Silent and under the proud facade of the network, GMA’s AI sportscasters can infiltrate the broadcasting duties in the country as a whole through time. Meaning, a win for the privileged, but a nightmare for the unemployed, displaced, and upcoming media practitioners. Simply convenient for the GMA network, but dangerous on a lot of levels.
As today marks the official employment of AI sportscasters in the country, the circulating debates about it should no longer centralize on painting AI as bad and projecting old traditions as good. The past and the present work hand-in-hand, and as much as we honor the hardships of the manual ways we had before, our present demands advancements to move forward. However, advancements should be based on acceptable grounds. –Advancements that cater to all; those that are not only attuned to comforting the privileged and those that do not promote the extinction of endangered professions.
Jimwell Kenneth Tanay
Jimwell Kenneth Tanay is a senior Communication student at BU College of Arts and Letters. He joined the publication in 2020 as a Public Relations staff and was assigned to cover gender and development.
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