WORLDTECHXinhua shows bionic humanoid news anchors built with UBTECH
China's state news agency Xinhua has presented what it calls the world's first bionic humanoid robot news anchors, one male and one female, at the World Media Summit in Beijing. The machines were built together with the robotics manufacturer UBTECH Robotics.
Anchors appear before summit audience
The two life-sized humanoid anchors, one male and one female, appeared on Thursday at the World Media Summit in Beijing, where they addressed those gathered. The report describes them as the first robots of this kind, a claim that comes from the outlet's own reporting rather than from an independent source.
Ownership and manufacturing responsibilities
The robotic anchors were developed jointly by UBTECH Robotics and the news agency. Xinhua, according to the report, holds the complete property rights. UBTECH carried out the entire manufacturing process, including the bionic skin, an artificial covering meant to imitate the look, feel and in some cases the function of human skin.
Company chairman defends accuracy claims
UBTECH's founder and chairman, Zhou Jian, supported these claims. He said the robot's "brain–expression–control" system pulls vetted, authoritative news in real time, which he argued helps avoid the misinformation and invented content that generative AI can produce when it hallucinates, that is, when an AI system states something untrue.
Open questions
- Can the claims about the robots' real-time news retrieval be checked independently?
- Will the anchors be used for regular broadcasts?