When we started developing ZOE as an avatar with regular media presence, we knew we would be opening questions the Latin American television industry had not had to face before. The ethics of TV avatars stops being a theoretical matter when a synthetic character interacts week after week with human hosts, opines on current events, and builds a relationship with the audience. Does the audience know it is an avatar? Does it matter that they know? Who is editorially responsible for what it says? Can it interview human guests? And if it says something defamatory? In this article, from the concrete experience of having thought through and faced these questions with ZOE, I share the ethical framework we adopted and why transparency from the first minute is the only really sustainable policy.
Chris Meniw (Sat,) studied this question.