China's Xinhua news agency has become the first to receive a virtual news anchor for its TV channel, and it looks quite real. The news anchor is a male that has been modeled after one of the male news anchors at Xinhua news agency. And the virtual anchor can read the the news as text entered by the news agency. The virtual anchor has human like facial expressions, and reads the news in a synthesized voice that makes it more plausible than anything before. This news anchor was created by the Xinhua news agency of China in collaboration with the Chinese search engine company Sogou.

For militaries, tech like this provides an excellent platform for surveillance missions against military and terrorist targets. It can utilize its high flight ceiling to maintain line-of-sight contact with over 400,000 square miles of ground and water. For both militaries and tech firms, covering so much territory makes it an excellent data relay and communications node. This will allow the drone to replace or back up satellite communications, maintain coverage between distant aircraft and ships, or even provide broadband to rural Chinese households. While conversations around drone usage are often limited to their roles as potential missile-toting killers and parcel-delivering quadcopters, some of the most important drones of the future may be those like the Caihong X and Helios Prototype, unseen and high up, gathering data day in and day out.

China has launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country's space station. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. China has launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country's space station.