Just when Katie Couric was starting to get really comfortable in her network anchor chair, along comes News at Seven, a virtual news show that does away with anchors, writers and pretty much people in general.

The system, from the InfoLab at Northwestern University, automatically generates a newscast tailored to fit the interests of each viewer. It collects the stories, edits them and organizes them, then hands them off to a virtual anchor to deliver them for an audience. With the somewhat stilted voice of a computer, she deftly presents the news of the day in action figure video form.

But News at Seven goes beyond traditional news and takes advantage of the unlimited content on the web. The system surfs for auxiliary commentary on issues by presenting relevant blogs and images that go along with each story.

The technology

Instead of a newsroom filled with writers and producers and anchors and reporters, News at Seven uses a graphical game engine and text-to-speech (TTS) technology for a completely virtual performance.

So far, the Northwestern virtual news gurus have produced a three-minute daily news update. On their web site, they say, “Although News At Seven is a very young system, it is already able to create a compelling, cohesive, on-topic news update performance. As we continue to advance its capabilities in finding interesting stories and displaying them in interesting ways, we fully intend to offer a viable replacement to the typical televised news show, tailored to a user's specific interests.”

Should Katie worry? Well, maybe, since the intention of CBS News is to attract younger viewers.  News at Seven shoots for the hip, young viewer on the demo scale. 

See for yourself. Watch ABC News Tonight’s podcast about their newest competition. Then be sure to see the video demonstration of News At Seven for yourself. It takes a few minutes for it to download, but it’s worth it.