Jeju’s provincial government has recently hired a news anchor to conduct its weekly YouTube program for 600,000 won ($450) a month: virtual human J-na.

The computer-created female presenter primarily delivers policy updates and local news from the island, reading scripts prepared via artificial intelligence. The program, developed and managed by a private contractor company, costs 600,000 won per month, according to the island province.

"Employing human news presenters incurs significant costs, so we sought an alternative and opted for J-na,” a Jeju official said.

J-na's name is derived from combining the initial letters of "Jeju," "News," and "AI."

In the Friday segment of “Weekly Jeju,” aired on the province’s official YouTube channel and its website, J-na, wearing a blue dress, read the news while occasionally swaying slightly back and forth, seemingly trying to appear more natural.

At a corner of the screen, a sign language expert who is a real human offered a simultaneous interpretation of what J-na was talking about.

This is not the first instance of an AI news presenter being introduced to the public in Korea.

On Nov. 6, 2020, MBN was the first local broadcaster to unveil an AI news presenter, modeled after a human news presenter, Kim Joo-ha. The broadcaster has since been airing daily programs featuring the AI version of the anchor.

Also, at the beginning of last year, broadcaster SBS adopted an AI-powered virtual human, Zae-in, to present a segment in its program about current affairs titled “Morning Wide Part 3.” Zae-in was created by the AI company Pulse9 and is also a member of the virtual girl band Eternity.

To mark the firm’s 30th anniversary in September last year, the cable news channel YTN also introduced AI news presenters Y-Go and Y-On, representing a man and woman, respectively. AI developer ESTsoft created the two AI news presenters by combining the faces of YTN employees.