China’s state-run press agency Xinhua, has unveiled new “Artificial Intelligence Anchor — digital composites created from footage of human hosts that read the news using synthesized voices. Each anchor can work 24 hours a day and various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improve efficiency.
Xinhua, from a search engine company, Sougou debuts world’s first Artificial Intelligence TV anchor. An Artificial Intelligence anchor can work 24 × 7 by cloning the face and voice of a real anchor that technically supported from machine learning and deep learning of his sound, lip shape and expression already started presenting news reports.
It’s not clear exactly what technology has been used to create the anchors, but they are in line with the most recent machine learning research. It seems that 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.
According to reports from Xinhua and the South China Morning post two anchors one for English broadcasts and one for Chinese were created in collaboration with local search engine company Sogou. Xinhua says the anchors have “endless prospects” and can be used to cheaply generate news reports for the agency’s TV, web, and mobile output.
Each anchor can work 24 hours a day on its official website and various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improving efficiency.
The technology has its limitations, the range of facial expressions are limited, and the voice is clearly artificial. But machine learning research in this area is making swift improvements, and it’s not hard to imagine a future where AI anchors are indistinguishable from the real thing.
