China's state run press agency, Xinhua launched its first artificial intelligence (AI) anchors based on the model of Xinhua's two anchors for English and Chinese platforms.
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| Xinhua debuted two English- and Chinese-speaking AI anchors |
If you are a journalist, or for that matter in any profession, and you thought that your job was not at risk from advancing technology, then China just proved you wrong.
China's state-run press agency, Xinhua, just launched its first artificial intelligence (AI) anchors at the ongoing fifth World Internet Conference in east China's Zhejiang province.
Based on the model of Xinhua's two anchors and launched for English and Chinese platforms, the model has been created using the latest AI technology.
These AI anchors are basically digital composites created from footage of human hosts that read the news using synthesized voices, which means an AI system was used to synthesise presenters voices, lip movements and expressions.
The press agency even launched the first video of the anchor speaking the news. Watch the video here:
According to Xinhua, the AI 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."Xinhua's first English #AI anchor makes debut at the World Internet Conference that opens in Wuzhen, China Wednesday pic.twitter.com/HOkWnnfHdW— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 7, 2018
It was jointly developed by Xinhua News Agency and Chinese search engine company Sogou.com. The anchor will work as a part of the reporting team.
It will work 24 hours a day on the official website and various social media platforms of Xinhua, which in turn will help reduce news production costs and improve efficiency.
Though truly a technological marvel, these AI anchors do have some limitations, like limited range of facial expressions and artificial voice.
But these are things which can be improved; therefore it is not hard to imagine a future where AI anchors will end up replacing real anchors.
Guess that's another job to tick off the list of things not to aspire to in future.
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