Appeared on Xinhua News Agency, with the appearance and voice of Zhang Zhao – a real anchor of Xinhua, the “world’s first” artificial intelligence (AI) news anchor has gone viral online. However, there are doubts about whether this China’s news anchor is really AI.
The technology which mimics a person voice and look was powered by Sogou, a search engine company, with the help of China’s state press agency, Xinhua. Modeled on the agency’s Zhang Zhao presenter, the machine learns from a real footage of news and has the ability to respond to text. “’He’ learns from live broadcasting videos by himself and can read texts as naturally as a professional news anchor,” claimed Xinghua. They also mentioned that they “will work 24 hours a day on its official website and various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improving efficiency”.
Though appearing quite impressive, this news anchor is called into question whether it’s a true example of AI. Will Knight, Senior Editor for AI at MIT Technology Review casts doubt on it. He considers this technology just a digital puppet that reads a script. “That’s certainly impressive, but it’s a very narrow example of machine learning. You can call it an “AI anchor,” but that’s a little confusing.”
This kind of technology is believed to support animation, special effects and video games, but it also raises worries about the threat of being used to spread misinformation or create bad reputation. To get ahead and prevent the scourge of disinformation in the digital world, Boston Global Forum believes that government, businesses, social organizations, individuals and the community need to work together to identify vulnerabilities and build strategic solutions. On December 12, 2018, the Fourth Annual Global Cybersecurity Day with the theme of AI solve Disinformation will be held at Harvard University with the participation of influential delegates and cybersecurity leaders.