First virtual news anchors unveiled

Shanghai – China’s state-controlled news broadcasters have long been considered somewhat robotic in their daily recitation of pro-government propaganda and a pair of new presenters will do little to dispel that view.

Calling it a “world first”, Xinhua news agency this week debuted a pair of virtual news anchors amid a state-directed embrace of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Based on the appearances of two flesh-and-blood Chinese news presenters, the computerised avatars read out text that is fed into their system.–