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The world’s first A.I. news anchor has gone live in China’s Xinhua agency

"Hello everyone, I'm an English Artificial Intelligence Anchor," said the virtual newsreader.

"This is my very first day in Xinhua News Agency. My voice and appearance are modelled on Zhang Zhao, a real anchor with Xinhua.

"The development of the media industry calls for continuous innovation, and deep integration with the international advanced technologies.

"I'll work tirelessly to keep you informed as texts will be typed into my system uninterrupted.

"I look forward to bringing you the brand new news experiences."


The technology was developed by Xinhua, working alongside Chinese search engine Sogou.

The teams behind the project used actual footage of human anchors, and then animated areas of the mouth and face.

This was then combined with a synthetic voice – like Amazon's Alexa – that can produce the news in real-time.

It means that reporters can file scripts from behind the scenes, and the virtual anchors will be able to read it out immediately – at all times of the day.