Ray-I? Ray Martin comes face to face with AI version of himself in SBS’ 2027 line-up

Ray Martin will come face to face with an AI-driven deep fake version of himself in a bid to understand the threats and opportunities posed by the rise of artificial intelligence in Ray Martin is Misinformed .

The documentary is one of the highlights of the slate unveiled in SBS’ annual upfront presentation — a showcase of its most eye-catching (and ad-friendly) content of the year ahead — in Sydney on Tuesday.

The broadcaster also announced that it has secured the rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which will be staged in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. This follows the record-breaking ratings for this year’s tournament, which was watched, the network claims, by 8 million Australians.

“For almost 50 years, SBS has been the spiritual home of the world game,” said managing director Jane Palfreyman. “Football has always reflected the Australia we are, and the Australia we aspire to be, a nation shaped by many cultures, communities, and stories. That’s why the FIFA World Cup on SBS matters. Because when SBS is doing its job well, Australia sees itself a little more clearly. I can’t think of a time when that has mattered more.”

Joseph Maxwell, the network’s head of factual, said that in the Ray Martin-fronted documentary “we actually create Ray-I, an AI version of Ray, and by the end of the show you cannot tell who’s Ray and who’s Ray-I.”

“It’s pretty unsettling for Ray at certain moments. The model grows; it starts off not sounding like him and by the end, you feel you’re in the room with two Rays. It’s got his voice, it’s got his pauses. They say AI can’t have a sense of humour, but it certainly picks up some of his tone and playfulness by the end.”

The show is not merely an exercise in what’s possible, Maxwell adds. It’s a meditation on what the fact that it is possible means — especially for the notion of truth in reporting. “Ray’s entire world has been journalism, and now journalism is under threat like it’s never been before. And Ray-I in some ways represents that threat. But in some ways it represents a solution, too.”

Maxwell highlighted a number of other notable documentaries in the slate, including Dan Goldberg ’s Bondi , a “minute by minute” account of the events of December 14, 2025 from the perspective of those who were there.

“This has got no narration; it’s all told by the people who were there,” says Maxwell. “And it paints a broader portrait of antisemitism, a broader portrait of social cohesion, a broader portrait of multicultural Australia.”

Similarly confronting is 2.6 Seconds , a four-part documentary series about the killing of Kumanjayi Walker by Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe in 2019. Marking the directorial debut of Darren Dale, co-founder of production powerhouse Blackfella Films, the series has all the marks, Maxwell says, of being a “channel-defining” commission.

“It’s a proper, landmark, premium true-crime show that reveals something really fascinating about Australia, doesn’t tell you what to think, but allows you to explore the evidence, explore the story,” he says.