\u201cHello,\u201d says the news presenter, as she effortlessly switches from Spanish to English to give her audience a summary of the day\u2019s biggest stories. <\/p>\n
With her clear intonation, smart appearance, and friendly-yet-serious expression, she seems the very image of a news anchor. Except, perhaps, for her name. <\/p>\n
As she introduces herself as The Girl (\u201cLa Chama\u201d) \u2013 and her co-presenter announces himself as The Dude (\u201cEl Pana\u201d) \u2013 the viewer gets the first hint there is more to this newscast than meets the eye. Then she adds, \u201cBefore we continue, in case you haven\u2019t noticed, we want to tell you that we are not real.\u201d <\/p>\n
Welcome to \u201cVenezuela Retweets,\u201d an AI-anchored news show created by a group of media organizations who want to shelter their real-life journalists from a crackdown launched by strongman Nicolas Maduro\u2019s government following July\u2019s disputed election. <\/p>\n
While in much of the world, journalists view the use of artificial intelligence as a looming threat to livelihoods, in Venezuela \u2013 where showing your face on a news report can conceivably land you in jail \u2013 many view it more favorably; as protection. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, being a journalist in Venezuela is a bit like being a firefighter,\u201d explained Carlos Eduardo Huertas, a Colombian media operator who coordinated the launch of \u201cVenezuela Retweets.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou still need to attend the fire even though it\u2019s dangerous. The Girl and The Dude want to be instruments for our firefighters: we don\u2019t want to replace journalists, but to protect them.\u201d <\/p>\n
After all, as The Dude chimes in reassuringly in one clip, \u201cAlthough we were generated by AI, our content is real, verified, of high quality, and created by journalists.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prompting this leap into a brave new world of technology is that real-life journalists in the country have found reporting the news an increasingly dangerous business since Maduro\u2019s controversial reelection \u2013 a result that has been hotly disputed by the opposition and caused widespread skepticism abroad. <\/p>\n
According to Espacio Publico,<\/em> a Venezuelan organization that tracks freedom of the press, at least 16 journalists have been detained in the government crackdown that followed the vote and the nationwide protests that erupted after it. All except four of them remain behind bars, some facing charges spanning from terrorism and incitement to hatred, while others are unsure even of what they are accused. Others still have seen their passports suspended. <\/p>\n The United Nations has talked of a \u201cclimate of fear,\u201d while many Caracas-based journalists have taken to working in pairs, sharing their whereabouts with loved ones and memorizing their lawyers\u2019 numbers just in case. <\/p>\n It was against this backdrop that the idea for \u201cVenezuela Retweets\u201d formed, explained \u201cRoberto,\u201d the managing editor of a digital publication in Caracus that is part of the collective behind it. <\/p>\n Among their other considerable skills as newscasters, The Girl and The Dude simply have no fear. <\/p>\n Restrictions on freedom of speech in Venezuela are nothing new: Government censors have long monitored radio and television programs, threatening to take them off air if they voice anti-Maduro content, while access to paper is heavily regulated for print publications, and local internet providers blacklist the URLs of news portals non-aligned with the government, like Roberto\u2019s. <\/p>\n Because of these restrictions, most Venezuelans get their news via social media, with WhatsApp chains being the considered the \u201cmost useful\u201d information channel, according to a report published in March by Consultores21, a Caracas-based opinion pollster. <\/p>\n This is where the format of Venezuela Retweets comes into its own, as it is designed specifically to be shared on social media. Rather than focus on live broadcasts or written articles, its digitally created avatars simply read the news in clips that can be posted on the likes of Instagram and Facebook, or downloaded and forwarded on WhatsApp and other messaging services. (Sharing the clips on X is more problematic, as Venezuela banned the use of the app altogether when Maduro accused tech tycoon Elon Musk of being part of a neo-fascist plot to overthrow his government.) <\/p>\n While this makes it harder to monitor how much traffic Venezuela Retweets generates, it adds yet another layer of security because it makes the video harder to track, according to Roberto. <\/p>\n Despite the enthusiasm around the project, some remain skeptical that hiding behind an avatar will be enough to keep the long arm of Maduro\u2019s government at bay. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nonsense to even think for a heartbeat that it\u2019s a safety tool. It\u2019s a clever idea, and I hope it lasts forever,\u201d said Shelly Palmer, a professor of Advanced Media at Syracuse University who has worked extensively on artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n Organizations involved in freedom of the press in Cuba and Nicaragua have gotten in touch, he said, signaling a widespread interest for using AI as a freedom of expression tool in authoritarian environments. <\/p>\n That does not mean Roberto, Huerta and the many journalists whose work goes into the reports of The Girl and The Dude are blind to the risks. While Roberto is keen to emphasize the difference the initiative has made to newsroom morale, he acknowledges what he and his staff are up against. <\/p>\n \u201cWe still live in Venezuela and at the end of the day we\u2019re at risk despite all the measures we can take,\u201d Roberto said. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a risk that cannot be underestimated. As regular listeners to The Girl and The Dude will know, the past two weeks alone saw the detention of another two reporters. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHello,\u201d says the news presenter, as she effortlessly switches from Spanish to English to give her audience a summary of the day\u2019s biggest stories. With her clear intonation, smart appearance, and friendly-yet-serious expression, she seems the very image of a news anchor. Except, perhaps, for her name. As she introduces herself as The Girl (\u201cLa <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} A unique format<\/h2>\n
An artificial sense of security?<\/h2>\n