What’s the deal with China’s new AI news anchor?

By Yair Oded

Published Nov 30, 2018 at 09:24 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

If you thought that Fox News is as scary as news channels can get, you better think again. Earlier this month, Chinese news agency Xinhua aired its (and the world’s) first ‘AI’ news anchor, a digital version of real-world Xinhua news anchor Qiu Hao. “This is my very first day at Xinhua News Agency,” declared the impeccably dressed artificial news anchor, who then congratulated himself for his ability to “tirelessly” deliver news, in both English and Chinese, 24/7. But as viewers across China, as well as around the world, eye Digital Hao with awe, some have already questioned whether he truly constitutes an AI breakthrough and whether his emergence means good or bad news for the world of media.

Xinhua’s anchor was developed through machine learning that imitates the voice, facial expressions and gestures of real-life broadcasters in order to forge what the company defines as “a lifelike image instead of a cold robot.” Yet despite Xinhua’s best efforts to simulate an actual human, many complain that the viewing experience of the ‘AI’ anchor isn’t so pleasing due to his flat, arrhythmic, and monotonic delivery.

His questionable imitation of human expression isn’t the digital anchor’s only problem. As pointed out by Will Knight, a senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review, Xinhua’s virtual anchor is hardly an example of true AI. Knight argues that while machine learning enabled the news agency to come very close to flawlessly mimicking a real-life news persona, they still must feed the text to his virtual alter ego. “We should… always be really careful I think about the use of the term AI, and in this context you don’t want to suggest that this anchor is actually exhibiting any intelligence, because it’s not, it’s just like a kind of very sophisticated digital puppet,” Knight said to CNBC, “What actually creates those images and the movement of the lips and the voice of this anchor is using algorithms that are related to artificial intelligence. But to call this an AI anchor is slightly overselling it.”

Other than misrepresenting the field of AI and diverting the public further away from the true core and purpose of its research, Xinhua’s brand of virtual news anchors risks diminishing the quality of the news itself, seeing as the ‘person’ delivering them is incapable of intelligent analysis. Seeing as most media and news agencies adhere to some worldview, their anchors often deliver the content through the filter of their socio-political affiliation. And while this practice flavours news with a considerable degree of bias, it also helps the viewer engage in a more profound analysis of the events, as opposed to mindlessly digesting them as passive consumers of information.

News anchors draw our focus to particular issues as they surface and shed light on aspects of them we wouldn’t otherwise consider; they have the power to humanise stories and situate them within a broader context. But Digital Hao and his fellow virtualites stifle this type of analysis of news and essentially grant those behind the scenes who feed them the information absolute power over crafting the content viewers are exposed to without owing to the responsibility of actually delivering it. Then again, for the Chinese Communist Party this is of course a desirable outcome. And although in the West freedom of speech is still not as brutally infringed upon as in China, we’d be foolish to think that there aren’t characters in power here who are drooling at the thought of gaining full control over our intake of news.

Knight and his fellows bash Xinhua’s virtual anchor for being a sham AI, incapable of real intelligence and a servant of autocrats who wish to limit any type of unwanted analysis of the news. While their claims are legit, wouldn’t the alternative be even more terrifying? What if we finally managed to manufacture a computer programme actually capable of intelligently analysing written text and such technology was utilised to deliver news to the masses? Could true AI news anchors be trusted to exercise sound judgement, honesty and transparency as they narrate our societies’ stories? This may still be far down the road, but it is safe to predict that a digital ‘24/7’ Jeanine Pirro would mark the beginning of the apocalypse.

Keep On Reading

By Charlie Sawyer

How much is the morning after pill and why are we still paying for it?

By Abby Amoakuh

Vivek Ramaswamy sucks up to Trump, Biden tries to win back Black voters and Giuliani files for bankruptcy

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Problematic Christmas songs you probably shouldn’t sing anymore

By Abby Amoakuh

Shocking list of F1 legends who have been linked to Jeffrey Epstein in latest court documents

By Abby Amoakuh

Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers to criminalise watching porn with penalties of up to 20 years in prison

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Olivia Colman reveals she’d earn a lot more money in Hollywood if she were a man

By Jack Ramage

Gen Alpha, Gen iPad: What’s the consequence of raising a generation of iPad kids?

By Charlie Sawyer

Non-English speaking artists are taking over the music industry, here’s why

By Abby Amoakuh

Tories ban trans women from female NHS wards because they claim they know what a woman is

By Alma Fabiani

Woman sues Lyft alleging driver repeatedly raped her and impregnated her

By Charlie Sawyer

How much are the Love Island All Stars contestants getting paid?

By Charlie Sawyer

TikTok investigator reveals identity of pathological liar in Who TF Did I Marry 50-part viral series

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Who is Adan Banuelos? The cowboy who has stolen Bella Hadid’s heart

By Charlie Sawyer

Ghislaine Maxwell breaks silence on newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein court documents

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Men are weirdly confident they could land a plane in an emergency. We asked them to explain

By Charlie Sawyer

How to date in 2024: Ditch other people’s romantic timelines and focus on you and only you

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Miriam Margolyes angers adult Harry Potter fans after saying they need to grow up

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Woman born with two uteri expecting a child in both, a one in 50 million chance

By Charlie Sawyer

What is delulu?

By Abby Amoakuh

Who is Selena Gomez dating? From Justin Bieber to Benny Blanco, here’s her full dating history