"Xin Xiaomeng", The World's First AI-Based Female News Anchor

20/02/2019

It was in 2018 that China's Xinhua state news agency revealed two lifelike AI-powered news anchors that mimic human facial expressions and mannerisms to present the news.

The two "artificial men" which were the world's first AI-based news anchors, were introduced at the eve of China’s annual Journalists’ Day.

"Not only can I accompany you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I can be endlessly copied and present at different scenes to bring you the news," explained one of the robot news anchor at that time.

Going forward, Xinhua introduces another news anchor, which is a female.

The news agency calls her by the name "Xin Xiaomeng".

Considered the first female AI-powered news anchor, the artificial intelligence robot was developed by Xinhua and tech firm Sogou.

"Xiaomeng" here, joins the previous two male AI anchors already working with the news agency.

The AI that sported a short haircut and wore a pink blouse and earrings, appeared when China's Two Sessions started.

The Two Sessions event is considered the country's biggest political meetings of the year, and includes back-to-back meetings between the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC).

And here, "Xin Xiaomeng" which was modeled after real life Xinhua news anchor Qu Meng, appeared in a one-minute video by Xinhua.

At the same time, Xinhua also introduced an improved male AI news anchor that is capable of doing more gestures, stand, and move in more naturally way than Xin Xiaomeng or Qiu Hao, that has already presented 3,400 reports and garnered 10,000 minutes of screen time.

When appearing in front of a camera, nobody can perform non-stop for hours, let alone days, without commercial breaks or cuts.

The reason for this is because humans have energy that depletes quite rapidly.

In order to perform at our peak performances, we need to eat, drink, rest and sleep.

And besides physical limitations, humans also have psychological limitation, and a life out of work they need to take care of.

But computers apparently don't have these limitations. Computers can perform indefinitely, as long as the resources are available. This essentially give them the endurance surpassing even the most capable of humans.

Xinhua is also said to experiment with another robot reporter called "Jia Jia".