Chinese State-Run TV Debuts Artificial Intelligence News Anchor

Chinese State-Run TV Debuts Artificial Intelligence News Anchor

Chinese state-run news agency, Xinhua, broadcast its first A.I. news anchor modeled after one of its prime-time anchors, Zhang Zhao. The AI anchor was fashioned as the agency’s English-speaking host and promises it will report the news tirelessly, year-round, and without claiming overtime pay. Ha, ha, that’s a good one – apparently our future A.I. overlords have a sense of humor too.

The A.I. news anchor seems to employ similar technology to Apple’s Animoji, which mimics facial expressions, or it may be similar to a CGI character from your favorite superhero movie that looks uncannily realistic. According to one of its creators, Wang Xiaochuan, the technology could one day be used to have a digital mockup of anyone read the news to you, including your own parents.

But the concern with this technology for use in news media has stoked fears that it could be used to spread fake news and propaganda in a world rife with such issues. Videos implementing the technology to depict world leaders and celebrities giving completely fabricated speeches have circulated the internet recently, though it’s unclear whether these videos have been used to truly deceive anyone yet.

“Not only can I accompany you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I can be endlessly copied and present at different scenes to bring you the news,” the A.I. bot claims in the video.

In a world where traditional news media business models are failing due to new forms of consumption and widespread public distrust, this new technology promises to cut costs for publishers who no longer have to pay an actual human, while their bot can run non-stop as long as it has a script.

“The development of the media industry calls for continuous innovation and deep integration with the international advanced technologies … I look forward to bringing you brand new news experiences,” the bot said.

The pioneering of this technology by China is unsurprising as the autocratic country’s news reporting is entirely state-run. The country has taken other similarly Orwellian steps in its technological development, including a social credit score that rates its citizens’ daily behavior. The country has also installed a nearly universal surveillance apparatus that includes millions of CCTV cameras monitoring its citizens with machine-learning AI facial recognition technology.

The fears behind A.I. development stem from the idea that machine learning algorithms could one day lead to sentience and by the time this happens, A.I. will increase at an exponential rate, eventually realizing it doesn’t need humans or that it could enslave us due to a massive discrepancy in intellectual capacity. Others say this fear is absurd as we’ll always be able to unplug it – it’s just a computer after all. Right?

For more on the rise of artificial intelligence and the potential threats it poses, watch this episode of Deep Space :



Forget the Flu; Mark Gasson Fights Infection From Computer Virus

Forget the Flu; Mark Gasson Fights Infection From Computer Virus

As the age of technology wears on, more and more people have been considering implanting themselves and their pets with chips that store information and communicate various details to other receptive technology. But skeptics wonder if it’s naive of people to consider such trends as simple and safe. What happens, for instance, when your information is hacked, when there’s a glitch in the technology, or when there chip catches a computer virus?

In 2009, Dr. Mark Gasson tested these reservations were tested at the University of Reading, by having an RFID chip implanted into his hand. Then, quite intentionally, he infected himself with a computer virus.

RFID Insertion

RFID stands for radio frequency identification and work like barcodes within a type of tracking system, transmitting information to a reader through radio waves. Although their original use was for merchandise, people have begun inserting them into their pets and even themselves.

If this sounds a little like the premise of a dystopian sci-fi where the protagonist is running from an authoritarian force that can track him anywhere, you’re not far off. The chips have already been used to locate missing people — for better or worse. On the plus side, Alzheimer’s patients who’ve wandered far from home can be found and returned, and victims of kidnapping incidents are more likely to be rescued.

However, the problem with this marriage between living forms and technology — what one might refer to as transhumanism — surfaces when, say, stalkers or criminals have the technology to find you, wherever you are. Their victims become easy to locate and target.

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