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

September 1, 2026 — 1:30pmRay 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.”Ray Martin will meet an AI version of himself. Will he know which is which?SBS“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. “And I think we will be holding this up as the kind of show that only SBS does – really distinctive, really bold and absolutely gripping.”Samuel Johnson presents Homeless 300, a new documentary series for SBS.Alone Australia will be back, and again the contestants will have to try to survive in the Arctic Circle. It will be in a different location to the season currently airing, and they’ll be going in later, so the harsh winter conditions will begin to bite earlier. But the biggest change will be that this time they’re allowed to hunt.The Sami people’s sacred animals will not be on the menu, though. “There will be no reindeer harmed in the making of this show, I guarantee you that,” says Maxwell. “There are birds they can hunt, there are other animals they can hunt. But I can’t really reveal too much because the cast don’t know the details yet.”If Alone is all about people who opt to sleep rough in pursuit of a big cash prize, Homeless 300 will look at the plight of those who have no choice in the matter.Presented by Samuel Johnson, the show takes its name from the fact that 300 Australians are turned away from homeless shelters each night. And it’s a subject that resonates deeply with the Gold Logie-winning actor.“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a presenter so angered by the society in which we live,” says Maxwell. “He’s out there looking at this issue, and he’s just absolutely gobsmacked and asks us, ‘What as a nation can we do, and how did we get to this place?’”The three-part series marks a return to the topic SBS explored with Filthy Rich and Homeless back in 2017, but from a fresh angle. “And the sad thing is that issue has not changed,” says Maxwell. “The show is very much looking at solutions as well as the problems.”If the SBS slate is rich in hard-hitting factual content – including a series in which Marc Fennell revisits the Hilton Bombing of 1978, and sits down with Evan Pederick, the man who confessed to the act, was jailed for it, but whose testimony was later deemed unreliable – it is noticeably thin on locally produced scripted content.The network announced just three commissions for its Digital Originals program, which has previously produced The Tailings and this year’s Logie-winning Homebodies.Ethan Hawke plays Lee Raybon, a self-styled “truthstorian”, in The Lowdown.The new series are adventure drama Mangrove Mansion, supernatural First Nations story Pretty Deadly and a social media comedy about feuding friends, Tantrum. But with a combined running time of just three hours, the slate does little to allay concerns about the parlous state of Australian drama and comedy on free-to-air television.Viewers will be better served with international drama, with espionage drama Legacy of Spies, based on the work of John le Carre and starring Matthew Macfadyen, Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Laurie, and new seasons of Belfast cop drama Blue Lights, Steven Knight’s Rogue Heroes and Silicon Valley satire The Audacity. New dramas include the free-to-air premiere of The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke as a bookstore owner and exposer of corruption in Tulsa, and the new darkly comic Irish crime drama Tall Tales and Murder, starring Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen. Eurovision returns, of course, and SBS remains the home of cycling on free-to-air television.Want more TV? We’ve got you.Newsletter: Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.September streaming guide: All the exciting new shows to watch this month.Movie guide: 200 handpicked hits from all the major streamers.Australian Story: The ABC flagship is turning 30. Leigh Sales and Claudia Karvan reflect on the experience of making the show.Kitchen Cabinet: Has Annabel Crabb’s political interview show reached its use-by date?Watch: Deputy TV editor Meg Watson on what’s worth adding to your list right now.More:Australian TVWhat to watchWhat's on TVRay MartinFrom our partners