China introduces world’s first AI news anchor

China’s official news agency, Xinhua famous for its robotic broadcasting has taken the next step in the field of AI by introducing the world’s first “AI anchor”. The news agency has developed two AI anchors – one that will broadcast the news in English while other will do it in Mandarin. These two broadcasters will be performing the duties of their human counterparts. They have been designed to mimic real-time actions such as moving their lips and face in a realistic manner.

The anchor named, Qiu Hao, wearing a dark-grey suit in a video, nods his head, blinks and raises his eyebrows. The digital anchor in a video said that:

“Not only can I accompany you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I can be endlessly copied and present at different scenes to bring you the news”

The data for these AI bots were gathered with the help of Chinese search engine company, ‘Boasts’. These anchors were developed with the help of modern machine learning algorithms to simulate the voice, gestures and facial expressions in real-time. According to Xinhua, one of the main reasons behind this radical change is to reduce cost and increase efficiency, as the news agency said that these AI-driven anchors can work 24 hours a day, therefore reducing production cost.

A concern for the future generation?

These broadcasters debuted during China’s annual World Internet Conference, a platform where China presents its vision of the Internet to the rest of the world. China is home to some of the world’s biggest tech companies, many experts have raised their concerns over China’s recent decisions such as implementing Iris and Gait recognition technology which will store a 3-D face-map of every Chinese in the country. Many fear that China might be turning into a digital police state.

Another concern that is becoming more of a reality is the loss of jobs for people. Ever since the advent of AI, critics have mentioned that the implementation of this technology will badly distort the balance of jobs. However, research firm Gartner predicts that the industry will, in fact, create 2.3 million jobs and eliminate 1.8 million by 2020.

The industry could generate more than $3.9 trillion within the next five years, according to Gartner, with companies such as Apple and Coinbase using it in recruitment where software engineers are interviewed online by AI platform Triplebyte.