News anchors at Shanghai Dragon TV are reportedly worried that they will eventually lose their jobs with the recent employment of a robotic weather presenter for the station's Morning News program. The robot's debut this week was so successful that it raised concerns about the possibility of an automation of news broadcast in China, prompting the Shanghai Media Group to reassure its employees that the the robot's role will only supplement human anchors with its big data analysis, according to The Economic Times.
The robot, which is called Xiaoice, is an artificial intelligence technology developed by Microsoft. It was "invited" as a trainee weather anchor, presenting and commenting on weather forecasts daily since Tuesday.
"Xiaoice is a critical artificial intelligence product for Microsoft and she has been first launched in China and Japan," Dr. Yongdong Wang, Xiaoice's creator and Managing Director of Microsoft Applications & Services Group East Asia told the Daily Mail. "We feel thrilled to work with SMG to introduce Xiaoice into the live TV programme and to jointly open a new chapter in the history of the scientific technology and television."
Xiaoice has an almost human-like voice and has the advantage Microsoft's deep learning technology that enables it to deliver weather forecasts and comment on them based on data collected and analyzed from Bing's search engine. The A.I. also has a distinct personality, contextual awareness and even a sense of humor, according to Win Beta. Watch how Xiaoice hold its own in a conversation with a human news anchor:
