News coming in from China is that they've created the first ever Artificial Intelligence News Anchor. Xinhua, China's state run press agency, have released footage of their AI Anchors.
The AI's mannerisms and voices were adapted from human counterparts that actually exist. According to The Verge, Xinhua "has used footage of human anchors as a base layer, and then animated parts of the mouth and face to turn the speaker into a virtual puppet.
"By combining this with a synthesized voice, Xinhua can program the digital anchors to read the news, far quicker than using traditional CGI."
Xinhua have created two news anchors - one for English broadcasts, and one for Chinese. They've also said that the news anchors can work 24 hours a day, meaning they will lower production costs and create higher efficiency. This also means that, for the first time ever, news anchor's jobs are at risk.
Have a look at the clips of the AI below and let us know what you think. Will there be an AI journalist writing these news articles in the future? It's a chilling thought.
