Chinese News Agency Adds AI Anchors To Its Broadcast Team (engadget.com)

Two AI anchors are joining China's state-run news agency Xinhua. "The two anchors, one that speaks in English and another in Chinese, have the likeness of some of Xinhua's human anchors, but their voices, facial expressions and mouth movements are synthesized and animated using deep learning techniques," reports Engadget. From the report: "AI anchors have officially become members of the Xinhua News Agency reporting team," the agency said. "They will work with other anchors to bring you authoritative, timely and accurate news information in both Chinese and English." China's South China Morning Post reports that the AI anchors are available through Xinhua's English and Chinese apps, its TV webpage and its WeChat public account. The technology behind the anchors is being provided by search engine company Sogou.

Xinhua says its AI anchors can deliver the news with the "same effect" as that of human reporters. But if you watch the video, that isn't exactly true. It's pretty clear you're watching a non-human anchor as the mouth movements and facial expressions aren't quite human-like, and the voice can come off as a little robotic.

Comments

My thoughts

[Presence Eternal]

At first I was against this. But then I realized it wouldn't change anything. It's not like the news can become less honest. I contemplated the matter for a little longer, and I realized that shills will soon be out of jobs. Also anything that reduces the amount of emotional labor in the world is a good thing. So now I'm in favor of this.

Re:My thoughts

[ShanghaiBill]

something so horrible that if it ever reached the news, the newsreader might refuse to report it.

Has there ever been a government so odious that they were unable to find people to carry out their policies?

The Nazis had little difficulty recruiting people for the totenkopf and einsatzgruppen, so I doubt if the CCP has trouble finding news anchors.

Trump may have difficulty attracting top talent, but that is because of his habit of throwing loyal subordinates under the bus, rather than any moral objection to his policies.

Nothing to see here, folks. Really. NOTHING to see

[hyades1]

When we communicate, we pick up a lot of information about the other person through body language, including, to some extent, whether they're comfortable with what they're saying. Not today or tomorrow, but in the not-too-distant future, I suspect it will be possible to analyze video of a person (like a news reader) and determine with a reasonable degree of accuracy whether they actually believe what they're telling you.

Of course, if your only source of information is a glorified cartoon whose every word, gesture and twitch is controlled by its owner, you can be lied to on a level that surely has totalitarians drooling like a hungry dog at a barbecue.

Max Headroom

[goombah99]

Does no one recall Max Headroom?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...