Beijing: China continues to make remarkable strides in making human journalists obsolete.
On Tuesday, state news Xinhua announced that in collaboration with Sogou (search engine) has created the world’s first female AI news anchor, known as Xin Xiaomeng.
The anchor will be making “her” debut during the upcoming Two Sessions political meetings in March.
This announcement came after Xinhua debuted the world’s first male AI news anchor, Qiu Hao, during China’s annual World Internet Conference held in November in the town of Wuzhen.
China's Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday unveiled the world’s first female #AI news anchor, “Xin Xiaomeng,’ who will make her professional debut during the upcoming meetings of the country's national legislature and top political advisory body #TwoSessions pic.twitter.com/9gGDpfwfil
— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) February 20, 2019
Xinhua stated that they have also developed an improved male anchor called Xin Xiaohao. This upgraded version will be able to stand up and gesticulate and has more natural mouth movements.
Xinhua has been experimenting with AI-driven journalism in recent years, including a robot reporter whose attempt to imitate a human went slightly awry.
Xinhua said that its robotic “new employees” have taken to their roles with enthusiasm, and since launching in November have published some 3,400 reports totaling over 10,000 minutes in length.
