Xinhua has been experimenting with AI-driven journalism in recent years, including a robot reporter whose attempt to imitate a human went slightly awry. Jia Jia, a Chinese-manufactured robot who resembles a young woman dressed in historical clothing, interviewed AI expert and Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly at an event in Hefei in 2017. Xinhua, which broadcast the chat live, billed Jia Jia as a special reporter. Jia Jia, however, clearly had hard time responding naturally to many of the questions posed by Kelly, sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to answer and restricting herself to one- or two-word answers that didn't always make sense. Earlier in 2017, a 1.2-meter tall robot called "Inspire" served as an intern reporter for Xinhua during that year's Two Sessions meetings.

In a remarkable step to render human journalism obsolete, state news outlet Xinhua teamed up with search engine Sogou to create the world's first female AI news anchor. According to reports, the anchor, Xin Xiaomeng will make her first appearance in March, during the upcoming two sessions political meeting. As far as applying artificial intelligence in journalism goes, China is pushing the boundaries further than ever. Just four months ago, Xinhua debuted the first male AI News anchor during China's world internet conference in Wuzhen. But, that was just the beginning.

China continues to make remarkable strides in making human journalists obsolete. State news outlet Xinhua announced yesterday (Feb. The anchor will make "her" debut during the upcoming Two Sessions political meetings at the start of March. The announcement comes after Xinhua debuted the world's first male AI news anchor, Qiu Hao, during China's annual World Internet Conference held in November in the town of Wuzhen. Xinhua and Sogou said that they also developed an improved male anchor called Xin Xiaohao, who is also able to stand up and gesticulate and has more natural mouth movements.

China's talking robot Jia Jia had a dismal first interview in English where she forgot where the Great Wall of China was. The mechanical marvel has been sent back to humanoid school to hone her skills after stumbling over basic words and phrases during the Skype interview. Jia Jia was unable to respond to basic questions about the number of letters in the alphabet or describe the American journalist she was talking to. Chinese robot Jia Jia (right) was interviewed by Kevin Kelly (left) co-founder of Wired magazine over Skype but the mechanical marvel's conversation was not coherent It took the team three years to complete the robot, which can speak, show micro-expressions, move its lips and body, yet seems to hold its head in a submissive manner. The humanoid is programmed to recognise human/machine interaction, has autonomous position and navigation and offers services based on cloud technology. This humanoid has natural eye movement, speech that is in sync with its lip movement and refers to its male creators as'lords'.

If a recent interaction between a human journalist and his Chinese robot counterpart is anything to go by, it'll be a while before a journalist job will be lost to (a robot in) China. On Monday (April 24), Jia Jia, a Chinese-manufactured robot under development for about three years (link in Chinese), had a conversation with AI expert Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of technology magazine Wired. State-run Xinhua news agency broadcast the chat live, billing Jia Jia as a special reporter. Jia Jia looks like a young woman in her early twenties, blinks and smiles in a fairly human way, moves her lips when she speaks, and has micro-expressions. But she had a hard time responding naturally to many of the questions posed by Kelly, sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to answer.

If a recent interaction between a human journalist and his Chinese robot counterpart is anything to go by, it'll be a while before a journalist job will be lost to (a robot in) China. On Monday (April 24), Jia Jia, a Chinese-manufactured robot under development for about three years (link in Chinese), had a conversation with AI expert Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of technology magazine Wired. State-run Xinhua news agency broadcast the chat live, billing Jia Jia as a special reporter. Jia Jia looks like a young woman in her early twenties, blinks and smiles in a fairly human way, moves her lips when she speaks, and has micro-expressions. But she had a hard time responding naturally to many of the questions posed by Kelly, sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to answer.

Robots are rapidly becoming more and more lifelike and unrecognizable from humans. Eerily human-like robots built by China's University of Science and Technology stole the show over at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last week. You may have already seen Jia Jia, a super realistic robot capable of micro facial expressions and basic conversation with humans. Jia Jia can also recognize faces, identify your gender and age, and detect your facial expressions. But a newcomer robot also made a debut: the university unveiled a male robot that can accurately paint calligraphy.

"Jia Jia" can hold a simple conversation and make specific facial expressions when asked, and her creator believes the eerily life-like robot heralds a future of cyborg labour in China. Billed as China's first human-like robot, Jia Jia was first trotted out last year by a team of engineers at the University of Science and Technology of China. Team leader Chen Xiaoping sounded like a proud father as he and his prototype appeared at an economic conference organised by banking giant UBS in Shanghai's futuristic financial centre. Chen predicted that perhaps within a decade artificially intelligent (AI) robots like Jia Jia will begin performing a range of menial tasks in Chinese restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals and households. "In five to 10 years there will be a lot of applications for robots in China," Chen said.

"Jia Jia" can hold a simple conversation and make specific facial expressions when asked, and her creator believes the eerily life-like robot heralds a future of cyborg labour in China. Billed as China's first human-like robot, Jia Jia was first trotted out last year by a team of engineers at the University of Science and Technology of China. Team leader Chen Xiaoping sounded like a proud father as he and his prototype appeared Monday at an economic conference organised by banking giant UBS in Shanghai's futuristic financial centre. Chen predicted that perhaps within a decade artificially intelligent (AI) robots like Jia Jia will begin performing a range of menial tasks in Chinese restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals and households. "In 5-10 years there will be a lot of applications for robots in China," Chen said.

Robots are rapidly becoming more and more lifelike and unrecognizable from humans. Eerily human-like robots built by China's University of Science and Technology stole the show over at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last week. You may have already seen Jia Jia, a super realistic robot capable of micro facial expressions and basic conversation with humans. Jia Jia can also recognize faces, identify your gender and age, and detect your facial expressions. But a newcomer robot also made a debut: the university unveiled a new male robot that can accurately paint calligraphy.