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China's State news outlet Xinhua, has debuted "AI anchors"
The company created these "AI anchors" from digital composites of human anchors and gave them synthesized voices to deliver the news. Other than those details, the agency has kept the technology used in bringing this anchorman to life under wraps.
Checking out the animation, the speech is surprisingly good and far better than the terrible robo voices on some video channels. The British accented English speaking video anchor proudly claims
I will work tirelessly to keep you informed as texts will be typed into my system uninterrupted
And, this being China, there's the capitalism angle:
One of the best parts of having an AI anchor? "He" doesn't sleep, said the press agency.
"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," the Xinhua media team noted.
An interesting advantage in the land of 1.4 billion people.
We'll just have to see how these guys compare with good ol' Max
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 08 2019, @02:33PM (5 children)
Those folks who say automation won’t take all jobs need to start listing the jobs it won’t take. Bet this one would have been on the list.
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Friday March 08 2019, @05:17PM (1 child)
Yes. This definitely goes to show you how truly dumb certain jobs are. Human news anchors are basically just reasonably attractive people who read whatever is stuck in front of them. So yes, if your job doesn't require a lot of thought, you're eventually going to get replaced with a machine.
A true journalist, on the other hand, would be someone who can conduct a live interview and come up with their own followup questions and so on. *That* is something that AI is not going to replace for a while, if ever.
(Score: 3, Touché) by deimtee on Friday March 08 2019, @08:38PM
"And now we will be crossing live to ELIZA on the scene for further reports and an interview with the chief fire-fighting robot."
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Touché) by HiThere on Friday March 08 2019, @05:19PM (1 child)
Here's the job they won't take: Top management, or, alternatively, company owner.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 08 2019, @05:52PM
Of course not! Management would sooner kill the program than let an automated drone take their jobs away. Management's sole prerogative is to find ways to eliminate our jobs, not theirs.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 09 2019, @12:32PM
The Television News Anchors Read The Newspaper.
I Swear I'm Not Making This Up.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]