NEED
A GREAT, EXPERIENCED ENGLISH TEACHER OR PERSONAL TUTOR?
Contact
Teacher Jack!
MEET REN XIAO-RONG, CHINA’S NEWEST AI NEWS ANCHOR
Mainland China’s official state media company, People’s Daily, recently presented the newest member of its news-anchor team, Ren Xiao-rong, a virtual, AI-powered anchor that can provide 24/7 news coverage.
In a video, Ren Xiao-rong introduced herself to the world as an AI-driven chatbot that has learned the skills of “thousands of news anchors” and that can constantly evolve, based on viewers’ feedback. Beautiful and smartly dressed, Ren certainly looked like an agreeable news anchor, and except for her synthesized, out-of-synch voice, you could hardly tell she wasn’t a real person.
Using an app, anyone can ask the news anchor questions on a variety of topics, including education, epidemic prevention, housing, employment, environmental protection, and many others, but she can currently only give generic answers, in line with the opinions favored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Hello, my name is Ren Xiao-rong. I am an AI digital anchor who has just joined People’s Daily,” Ren said during her first online report. “Thousands of news anchors have given their professional skills to me. For 365 days, 24 hours a day, I will be reporting news during the whole year, round the clock, without rest.”
“Whether at news sites or back in the studio, you will always see me. Every conversation, every piece of feedback you provide will only make me smarter,” the virtual news anchor added.
While certainly impressive at first sight, Ren Xiao-rong is currently nowhere nearly as advanced as Open AI’s ChatGPT. Human users’ interaction with the virtual news anchor is limited to choosing a topic they want to learn about, on which Ren can only lecture with generic answers—not quite the cutting-edge technology they are claiming.
Ren Xiao-rong isn’t the first AI-powered virtual news anchor created in China. Xinhua, the official mainland Chinese news service, introduced its first male virtual anchor in 2018, followed by a female version a year later. While everyone expected them to evolve quickly and replace human anchors, that has yet to happen. Similar virtual anchors in South Korea have not caught on, either.
“I have never really understood this: Is there a shortage of broadcasting talent? Are AI anchors better at it?” one Weibo user commented. “Why would you use a robot to broadcast the news? Or, are you spending the money on an AI presenter just to show off your technology?”
How about a Chinese AI CEO ?
LEARNING TOOLS
English questions about this article or about English in general?
Ask Teacher Jack at: asktjack1@gmail.com
CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PAGES:
ARCHIVE/JOKES TEACHER JACK IDIOMS ENGLISH FACTS
NEED A GREAT, EXPERIENCED ENGLISH TEACHER OR PERSONAL TUTOR? Contact Teacher Jack!
Facebook: Full Spectrum English Tutor Teacher Jack
ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW AT
Offbeat English
https://linggle-offbeatenglish.blogspot.com/
COME BACK SOON!