Chinese News Agency Adds AI Anchors To Its Broadcast Team (engadget.com) 79
Two AI anchors are joining China's state-run news agency Xinhua. "The two anchors, one that speaks in English and another in Chinese, have the likeness of some of Xinhua's human anchors, but their voices, facial expressions and mouth movements are synthesized and animated using deep learning techniques," reports Engadget. From the report: "AI anchors have officially become members of the Xinhua News Agency reporting team," the agency said. "They will work with other anchors to bring you authoritative, timely and accurate news information in both Chinese and English." China's South China Morning Post reports that the AI anchors are available through Xinhua's English and Chinese apps, its TV webpage and its WeChat public account. The technology behind the anchors is being provided by search engine company Sogou.
Xinhua says its AI anchors can deliver the news with the "same effect" as that of human reporters. But if you watch the video, that isn't exactly true. It's pretty clear you're watching a non-human anchor as the mouth movements and facial expressions aren't quite human-like, and the voice can come off as a little robotic.
Xinhua says its AI anchors can deliver the news with the "same effect" as that of human reporters. But if you watch the video, that isn't exactly true. It's pretty clear you're watching a non-human anchor as the mouth movements and facial expressions aren't quite human-like, and the voice can come off as a little robotic.
Re: Soon (Score:2)
We have this in USA too (Score:2)
Here's a screen shot from today's broadcast on Twitter Images:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dr... [twimg.com]
Max Headroom (Score:5, Insightful)
Does no one recall Max Headroom?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
2004 called (Score:2)
A classic for the ages from Ananova's Quirkies section: [archive.org]
Zoo keeper mauled to death 'after defecating on tiger'
A young Chinese tiger keeper has been mauled to death after apparently trying to defecate on one of his big cats.
The 19-year-old appears to have climbed the railings of the Bengal tiger cage and pulled his trousers down.
Evidence at the scene of the death at the Jinan animal park included toilet paper, excrement and a trouser belt.
Zoo officials think Xu Xiaodong either slipped into the cage or was pulled in by one of the four angry tigers.
According to the South China Morning Post, the man told a co-worker he needed to go to the toilet but police were called when he failed to return.
They found his body lying on the ground surrounded by tigers. The teenager had reportedly been bitten in the neck and was covered in blood.
Police believe Xu climbed the wall of a partially constructed building used to raise the tigers to relieve himself. They said the smell probably caused the tigers to pounce.
You can see more stories about tigers and zoos on Ananova, or read our Animal attacks file. (emphasis mine)
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Google must have a big boner over this. They love bringing communist tyranny to America:
I'm sure it will be abused, but a benign use of this is for visual avatars for Alexa, Google assistant, Cortana, Siri, etc. You will probably be able to choose between visual likenesses to suit your personal tastes. It may not be this year, or the next, but someone is going to do it eventually. The tech seems "good enough" to deploy at this point. The only problem remaining to solve is that the big companies will want to keep the rendering cloud-based to keep the most valuable IP off consumer devices.
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+1 for Miku and Mitchie M.
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Riiiiiidge Raceeeeer!
Wait, what are we doing again?
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Stupid slashdot interface scrolled the page up and made me reply to my own post...
I was replying to #57615484
My thoughts (Score:3, Insightful)
At first I was against this. But then I realized it wouldn't change anything. It's not like the news can become less honest. I contemplated the matter for a little longer, and I realized that shills will soon be out of jobs. Also anything that reduces the amount of emotional labor in the world is a good thing. So now I'm in favor of this.
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My first thought was that they were concerned at doing something so horrible that if it ever reached the news, the newsreader might refuse to report it. Then I thought of Max Headroom.
"You could have all your politicians in little boxes... very handy, that." - Breughel
Re:My thoughts (Score:4, Insightful)
something so horrible that if it ever reached the news, the newsreader might refuse to report it.
Has there ever been a government so odious that they were unable to find people to carry out their policies?
The Nazis had little difficulty recruiting people for the totenkopf and einsatzgruppen, so I doubt if the CCP has trouble finding news anchors.
Trump may have difficulty attracting top talent, but that is because of his habit of throwing loyal subordinates under the bus, rather than any moral objection to his policies.
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I'd be more worried about the technology improving to the point where trusted human news anchors could be replaced by AI puppets and no-one would notice.
People are already falling for much simpler, easier to detect fakery, like that video Sarah Sanders posted.
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Has there ever been a government so odious that they were unable to find people to carry out their policies?
As they perfect this technology they won't have to bother with finding someone to carry out their policies and read their nonsense. The ministers of propaganda will be able to tweak the AI anchor's expression and mannerisms to match the desired message. Want to intimidate the viewer? Lower the eyebrows and lean the anchor forward in its chair. Want the viewer to feel happy that the loss of an inherent right is a good thing for the party. Paint a big smile on the anchor and lift the pitch of the voice.
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Has there ever been a government so odious that they were unable to find people to carry out their policies?
Perhaps, but how would we hear of it? Unable to find people to carry out policies means it isn't a government anymore.
Max Headroom Called He Wants His Shtick Back (Score:2)
MSNBC is also thinking about suing they did this on "The Site" back in the 90s with their animated anchor Dev Null
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Maybe the patent on "news anchor on a computer" has expired now
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I need a humor tag
Oh BTW Max wasn't actually computer generate he was Matt Frewer in heavy makeup but Dev Null was.
Nothing to see here, folks. Really. NOTHING to see (Score:5, Insightful)
When we communicate, we pick up a lot of information about the other person through body language, including, to some extent, whether they're comfortable with what they're saying. Not today or tomorrow, but in the not-too-distant future, I suspect it will be possible to analyze video of a person (like a news reader) and determine with a reasonable degree of accuracy whether they actually believe what they're telling you.
Of course, if your only source of information is a glorified cartoon whose every word, gesture and twitch is controlled by its owner, you can be lied to on a level that surely has totalitarians drooling like a hungry dog at a barbecue.
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You know what they say, practice makes perfect and it is not about a couple of pure propaganda news readers but hundreds of pure propaganda news readers all telling you the government is right and you are wrong but you know what, I don't believe the shit coming out of people reading the news, even what were reliable sources like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which has taken a decided propagandistic slant that favours off all things the bullshit US establishment, obviously eaves dropping on politi
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As a Canadian, I certainly see where you're coming from on this.
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Let me guess: you only listen to reputable sources like some guy on YouTube
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You should learn to read more carefully. I specifically did not say "telling the truth", and that's for a reason. Israeli intelligence already has a voice stress analyzer that's pretty good at picking up on lies. I mentioned something quite different: whether or not a news reader is comfortable with what they're telling you. And I can stand by that with plenty of evidence on my side to back me up.
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I don't think they would get human news readers that were noticeably uncomfortable, so shouldn't make a difference anyway.
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I suspect it will be possible to analyze video of a person (like a news reader) and determine with a reasonable degree of accuracy whether they actually believe what they're telling you.
If the "tell" can be detected, then it can be eliminated. Just feed it back into a GAN until it looks truthful.
GAN = Generative Adversarial Network [wikipedia.org]
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And so the "arms race" begins.
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That's why organizations lie to the press secretary.
I'm all for it (Score:1)
If these creations can deliver the news in a less maudlin, hand-wringing, emotional manner than what has become the style for human news anchors it'll be a step forward.
A.I. Channel (Score:2)
Just another thing for them to cheaply replicate.. (Score:1)
...humans.
It sounds like a joke, but it's very representative of Chinese mentality.
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FTFY. Please don't confuse these two things. You shouldn't confuse my mind might hold, as an individual American, with whatever by GOP/Democrat overlords might pronounce. At least I have two sets of corrupt overlords I can refuse to vote for. And, what's more, I can publicly proclaim a pox on both their houses, at least until they stop aiding and abetting the starvation of Yemeni women and children. Vastly more so
Less than perfect (Score:2, Informative)
Heres some feedback to help penetrate the American market:
Kinda like Fox News ... (Score:2)
... in that it doesn't really matter what the method of delivery is.
Sounds perfect for the Communist Chinese gov. (Score:2)
They betray what their fondest wish is: for all human subjects to be like robots.
The news has been released by Xinhua... (Score:2)
Groovy funky channel 27 (Score:2)
personalized! (Score:2)
Allowing me to choose my own preferred newsbot, or selecting the most reliable-seeming newsbot for my specific psychology using all the aggregated data from social media, web browsing, purchase history, and so on. Then this carefully crafted, targeted avatar can pay for itself by inserting ads right into the newscast.
Worser and worser (Score:2)