China Unveils World's First Bionic Humanoid Robot News Anchors

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Irfan Bukhari | The Peninsula

Beijing, China: Beijing witnessed the unveiling of what are described as the world's first bionic humanoid robot news anchors at a forum dedicated to artificial intelligence and Chinese modernisation during the 7th World Media Summit which concluded recently.

The debut highlighted efforts to bring together authoritative news content and embodied artificial intelligence, moving this innovative approach closer to practical application and paving the way for new forms of news delivery in the AI era.

The two humanoid anchors, Xinyan and Xinyu, are the result of a joint development project between Xinhua News Agency and UBTECH, a prominent Chinese robotics company. Their visual identities were designed under the direction of renowned Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou.

Both robots are built to human scale, replicating the proportions of real people. Custom-built for news applications, they are capable of delivering on-site news broadcasts. Their capabilities leverage Xinhua's AI-powered newsbot“Xinhua Yudian,” as well as UBTECH's full-chain proprietary technologies including biomimetic skin, embodied AI hardware, operating systems, emotion-driven large language models (LLMs) and mass production capabilities.

Zhang Yimou shared his thoughts on the integration of technology and art at the forum. Drawing on his expertise in visual storytelling and character design, he sought to strike a balance between the seriousness and professionalism required of news delivery and the natural, nuanced realism of lifelike robots.

Director-general of Xinhua's New Media Center Qian Tong said robot anchors are intended to take on new roles in the newsroom, not to become the stars of the show. They will assist journalists and editors with news presentation, multilingual content delivery and on-site interaction.

Qian said, according to Xinhua, the New Media Center will launch a project to establish the Xinhua News Agency Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (Beijing Base), which aims to bring together resources from government agencies, media organizations, technology companies and think tanks, and foster an innovation platform integrating industry, academia, research and application.

Zhou Jian, founder, chairman of the Board and CEO of UBTECH, said the robot anchors were the result of cross-sector collaboration, combining Xinhua's news industry standards and content resources, UBTECH's full-stack technologies, and the visual design work of Zhang Yimou and his team.

Zhou said the robot news anchors, powered by“Xinhua Yudian,” have established an integrated“brain-expression-control” technical pipeline. This enables the robots to retrieve authoritative political news and information in real time from vetted sources, helping reduce the risks of misinformation caused by AI hallucinations. The product is planned for future application in more scenarios such as educational bases, urban public venues, overseas cultural exchanges, and deep space exploration reporting.

The 7th World Media Summit was co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, and organised by Xinhua's Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Department, New Media Center and Xinhuanet. It aimed to provide a platform for dialogue and cooperation among global media organizations and build consensus on the use of AI in communication.

Under the theme“Media in the Intelligent Age: From Consensus to Action”, the summit brought together nearly 500 delegates from nearly 330 mainstream media outlets, think tanks, government departments and international organizations from 112 countries and regions around the world.

Delegates exchanged views on topics including 'AI for all and the transformation of global media,' 'media dialogue and cooperation for a safer world,' 'AI-enabled communication for expanding exchanges among civilizations,' 'AI+ and the future of global communication governance' and 'the Beijing approach: decoding Chinese modernization.' The mechanism of the World Media Summit was initiated in 2009 and is an important global platform for high-end media exchange and cooperation.

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