- Chinese state media outlet People's Daily has announced a new digital news anchor that will be available online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
- The AI-driven chatbot claims to have learned the skills of “thousands of news anchors”.
- So far, pre-set questions have only been answered based on propaganda.
China has unveiled its latest digital news anchor, an “artificial intelligence” entity that claims to provide 24/7 news coverage.
The anchor is a virtual young woman called Ren Xiaolong, who introduced herself to Weibo, China's version of Twitter, in a video published by state media outlet People's Daily on Sunday.
Wearing a black jacket and tucking her shoulder-length hair behind her ears, Ren claims to draw on the specialized skills of “thousands of newscasters”.
“24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There's news on every topic all year round,” Ren says in a robotic tone.
“Every little bit of feedback from you helps me improve myself,” Bott added in the video.
However, so far, Virtual Anchor is no match for ChatGPT. Insiders said that as of Thursday, Ren's only job was to provide pre-programmed answers to questions about China's “Two Sessions” political conference.
Users can select one of four preset questions related to the meeting, to which Ren will provide a general answer that is in line with the central government's message.
You can cycle through different questions, but users cannot type their own messages into Ren.
People on Weibo, a highly controlled and censored platform, warmly welcomed Ms. Ren despite her limited abilities.
“This number is pretty good! Technology is changing every day,” one Weibo user wrote.
“If it weren't for synthetic dubbing, you wouldn't be able to tell at first glance whether it's a virtual person or not. Will newscasters be replaced by AI in the future?” wrote another.
Ren is now part of a small group of digital AI news anchors in China, the first of which debuted on the state-run Xinhua News Agency in 2018.
But while the broader discussion on AI in 2023 has focused on content generation, the main feature of the project was the digital anchor's ability to accurately imitate voices, facial expressions, and human speech patterns, Xinhua said. Ta.
Another Chinese digital news anchor named Xin Xiaomeng debuted in 2019.
China is currently scrambling to find an answer to ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that is disrupting the industry.
Baidu, one of China's most used search engines, announced on Thursday that it has developed its own AI-driven chatbot named “Ernie”.
Despite promises that Arnie is nearing completion, Baidu's presentation on Thursday featured only a video recording of Arnie's features. According to Reuters, Baidu shares fell after the lackluster presentation.
Representatives for People's Daily did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
