AI avatars protect journalists in Venezuela

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Journalists safe thanks to AI presenters - 30th September 2024

Protests have taken place in Venezuela since President Maduro was announced as the winner of the country’s elections without any evidence. 1,400 people have been arrested and there have been 23 deaths. Journalists who fear for their safety are taking advantage of AI technology to protect their identities.

Reporters have started hiding their faces with the help of two news presenters which are AI avatars. They’ve been named La Chama, which means ‘the girl’ and El Pana, which translates as ‘the dude’. The news is written by more than 100 journalists and by 20 different Venezuelan news agencies and fact-checking organisations.

The project is coordinated by the Colombian news platform, Connectas. It’s called Operation Retweet and produces short news broadcasts that are being shared widely on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

In their first video, El Pana explained that their reports are written by real journalists. La Chama added that their objective is to show the real situation in Venezuela. However, photos shared with their broadcasts have to be carefully edited to hide the identities of protestors.

Maduro’s government has a history of limiting freedom of speech. It’s controlling newspapers’ access to paper supplies and has blocked some news websites. Broadcasts of TV and radio programmes that disagree with the government have also been discontinued. So far, 16 reporters have been arrested, with 12 still in jail.

Operation Retweet is expanding to include other languages. It’s created an English version of some broadcasts to reach a wider audience and plans on making versions in different languages too.