China’s AI Anchors Host Entire Evening News During Lunar New Year Break

During the Lunar New Year holiday, a Chinese television station made headlines by deploying an artificial intelligence (AI) model that resembles a real anchor for its evening main news. Although AI anchors have hosted news before, this is the first time to host an entire news broadcast.

On the 12th (local time), Hangzhou TV station Hangzhou Comprehensive Channel introduced AI digital anchors Xiaoyu(小雨) and Xiaoyu(小宇), who hosted the evening main news Hangzhou Xinyuan Lianbo at 7:30 pm on the 10th and 11th, through their official social media account.

The two AI anchors, produced by Hangzhou Yuanguang Group under Hangzhou Media Group, were modeled after male and female anchors Qiyu and Yuchen, who host news in the same time slot. They replicated the anchors’ vocalization, accent, lip movement, and other body movements to resemble real people closely.

Notably, the technology introduced by Hangzhou Channel caught attention as it can convert a 500-character script into speech in just 30 seconds, making it applicable in real time.

Ming Pao, a Hong Kong daily, reported that AI anchors have been appearing in China since 2018, but this is the first time an AI anchor has conducted an entire news program during prime time. It added, “While the AI anchor was hosting the news, the real human anchors could visit home and celebrate the New Year.”