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posted by martyb on Friday March 08 2019, @05:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the this-is-xin-xin-xin-hua-news dept.

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


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  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday March 08 2019, @08:13PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday March 08 2019, @08:13PM (#811696)

    It is China, they could be lying outrageously. While it it probably possible to build a 3d model that will read text believably it is just as likely they are cheating and doing motion capture and using a human voice(s) as a pattern to process into sounding like their artificial person.

    But it is obvious that in a country with such a large population they aren't doing this to save money. It is about control. With this, even if broadcasting coverage of a live event they can be assured their "anchor" doesn't go off script. They just have to have absolute control over the tech and the people writing the scripts but that is a solvable problem. The problem with human anchors is the audience develops a bond with them so replacing them at the first hint of crimethink is counterproductive. Replacing unseen and unnamed writers is simple.

    TLDR; version, Communists gotta Communist. On the other hand CNN is proof enough that a State controlled media can be kept under tight enough control with human newsreaders. On the gripping hand, an AI is probably cheaper than Anderson Cooper.

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