First Female Robot News Anchor in Action on Chinese TV Channel

In this age of machines, technology is overpowering human intelligence with the growing human dependence on technology. Though it reduces human activity, it also is increasingly replacing human intelligence with artificial intelligence. Recently China’s Xinhua state news agency used a robotic news anchor to present a story about the arrival of delegates in Beijing to attend an annual parliament.  

The lifelike robotic news anchor, which intelligently mimics human facial expressions and mannerisms, is named “Xin Xiaomeng”. The artificial intelligence is a female robot that also sports a short haircut and wore a pink blouse and earrings during the one-minute video presentation.

Xin Xiaomeng who also become the first female robot news anchor is modeled after real-life news anchor Qu Meng, who is also associated with the state news agency Xinhua. The robot is developed by Xinhua and tech company Sogou Inc.

Last November, Xinhua also presented two AI news anchors dressed in men’s clothes at the World Internet Conference in the eastern Chinese town of Wuzhen.

In the past few years, China is seen exploring its expertise in AI technology, from surveillance equipment to self-driving cars and if China continues with explore, one day it is going to make human journalists obsolete.

In the recent years, news agency Xinhua has been experimenting with AI-driven journalism, which also included a robot reporter whose attempt to imitate a human was although weird in comparison to the male and female anchors. The robot reporter is named Jia Jia that resembles a young woman dressed in historical clothing is seen interviewing AI expert and Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly at an event in Hefei in the year 2017.

News agency Xinhua has also broadcast the interview live, introducing Jia Jia as a special reporter. However, Jia Jia has difficulty in responding naturally to many of the questions posed at it by Kelly. In several occasions, it was found that it took up to 10 seconds to answer and restricting herself to one or two-word answers that appeared to be weird to the viewers.

In the year 2017, a 1.2-meter tall robot, which is popularly known as “Inspire” served as an intern reporter for Xinhua during the two sessions meetings of the year.

New agency Xinhua is happy and hopeful with its new robot employees as Xinhua says that its “robotic employees” have taken up their roles with great enthusiasm and since launching the robots, they have published around 3,400 news reports and recording over 10,000 minutes.