The BBC’s new boss says he’d let AI present a programme

The man running the BBC is open to letting AI front its programmes. Asked by Laura Kuenssberg whether he would allow a programme to be made and presented by AI, director general Matt Brittin replied: “I would do, within guardrails,” the BBC reports.

The interview, recorded for BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, is out on BBC Sounds and YouTube today and airs on Sunday at 9am. It comes as the corporation looks for £500 million in savings.

“Not a substitute for humans”

Brittin was quick to add limits. “We want to experiment with this technology and understand what it can and can’t do, but I’m here because I believe in human creativity,” he said.

I don’t think anything we do should be replaced by AI. I think there are lots of places where AI can help us make the licence fee go further, but also help us in our decision-making and creativity. But it’s not a substitute for humans.

Matt Brittin, BBC director general

The BBC already uses AI for some jobs, including automated weather forecasts in the BBC app and recommendations on iPlayer. It wouldn’t be the first British broadcaster to try an AI presenter either: Channel 4 used an AI-generated host in a Dispatches documentary last October, billing it as Britain’s first.

A former Google boss, a shrinking budget

Brittin took over as director general in May after a decade as Google’s president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He now faces hard choices. The corporation is cutting around 2,000 jobs, has already axed shows including Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind, Live at the Apollo and Football Focus, and he told Kuenssberg that financial pressure and on-demand viewing “may well mean” some TV channels and radio stations close. “We wouldn’t guarantee any programme or any channel will exist forever,” he said.

That backdrop matters. With the BBC cutting jobs to save money, talk of AI helping “make the licence fee go further” is likely to worry the people whose jobs are on the line, however carefully it’s framed. The National Union of Journalists warned that the cuts risk a “doom spiral,” and its general secretary, Laura Davison, told the Daily Mail they were “devastating and demoralising” for its members.

“Six companies will control access to information”

Brittin also had a warning for his old industry. He said AI is “in takeoff,” and that the BBC’s job is to stand apart from the tech giants:

There’s a danger that six companies will control access to information in future and the creation of information and misinformation. Six companies, none of them European, let alone British.

Matt Brittin, BBC director general

Asked whether he trusted big tech, he said he “wouldn’t trust any platform innately,” and that the BBC’s apps and services “should be the antidote to the algorithm. Everywhere else you go is driven by some commercial interest.”

Why it matters

The BBC is one of the most trusted news brands in Britain, and its boss saying yes to AI presenters, even “within guardrails,” makes it much easier for every other broadcaster to follow. The test will be whether the BBC uses AI to add programmes it couldn’t otherwise make, or to replace the people it can no longer afford.

Sources: BBC News, Daily Mail, Channel 4.