World's first AI news anchor debuts in China

Beijing: The world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) news anchor made “his” debut at the ongoing fifth World Internet Conference in east China’s Zhejiang province.

AI is a way of making a machine or a software ‘think’ and ‘demonstrate’ intelligently in a manner similar to humans.

The AI news anchor has a male image with a voice, facial expressions and actions of a real person.

“He” learns from live broadcasting videos by himself and can read texts as naturally as a professional news anchor, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

The AI news anchor was jointly developed by Xinhua and the Chinese search engine company, Sogou.com.

According to Xinhua, “he” has become a member of its reporting team and can work 24 hours a day on its official website and various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improving efficiency.

In 2015, China’s Shanghai Dragon TV had “employed” a robot as a weather reporter on its live breakfast show, which evoked concerns among Chinese television anchors that in near future machines may threaten their jobs.