China's state-run Xinhua News Agency debuts 'AI anchor' to read the news

The state-run press agency in China, Xinhua, will now deliver news using "AI anchors" made of digital composites that use synthesized voices to "read" the news.

These anchors look realistic, but are actually digital composites that are rendered using actual footage of human anchors reading the news. The AI anchors are able to "read" any text fed into the artificial intelligence using synthetic voices that are created through the use of composite audio recorded from the real-life anchors.

According to the South China Morning Post, an English-language anchor and a Chinese-language anchor were created by Xinhua in partnership with local Beijing search engine company Sogou. The anchors premiered on Wednesday at the World Internet Conference in China. Read more...