No Humans Needed: Chinese Company Uses AI to Read the News, Books

At the China Online Literature conference last week, Chinese search engine Sogou announced plans to create artificial intelligence-powered avatars that look and sound like two of the country's most famous authors--taking the experience of listening to an audiobook to an entirely new level. The first authors to get the A.I. avatar treatment will be Yue Guan and Bu Xin Tian Shang Diao Xian Bing. But if the project is successful, it could be a jumping off point for the industry to create avatars of even more authors. The audiobook industry is already big business in China and is expected to be worth more than $1 billion in the country by next year, according to iiMedia Research Group. A.I. avatars have the potential to give that an even greater boost.