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TV presenters world-wide are looking at each other and thinking either ‘that’s not very stiff’ or ‘am I next?’. China’s Xinhua state news agency has just introduced its very own news-bot for presenting on TV. Called an Ai anchor, it will report ‘tirelessly’ all day, every day, from anywhere in the country, and soon, in any language, (Chinese-speaking version has a different face.
Why?
Why? Why not? say some AI fanatics. Some say this anchor ‘struggled to appear completely natural’, said Michael Wooldridge at the University of Oxford. On the other hand, Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield said it was a “good first effort”. China is now the leader in Ai and this is a statement. How better to make than announce it on the news, TV news – with an Ai anchor. Well done Chiina.
The Uncanny Valley
Other felt it was, perhaps, stuck somewhat in the “uncanny valley” – a term used to describe human-like robots and avatars which seem distrubingly real yet subtly unrealistic. Other critiques are even more critical “It’s quite difficult to watch for more than a few minutes. It’s very flat, very single-paced, it’s not got rhythm, pace or emphasis,” Prof Wooldridge told the BBC. The performance or behaviour will improve over time. Just watch West World!
Robot Sophia in Saudi
Reducing Costs
Either way, it cuts production costs Xinhua says the presenters can “work” 24 hours a day on its website and social media channels, “reducing news production costs”. The Ai anchor says: “I will work tirelessly to keep you informed as texts will be typed into my system uninterrupted.” Sogou, a Chinese search engine, was involved in the system’s development.
You Decide
You decide whether this is the start of a new era, or not.
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SOSTAC® Plan for developing your own ChatBot
Join me in Clubhouse in my club called SOSTAC® Plans any Friday 3.30pm – 4.00pm BST for a chat, Q&A, observations about SOSTAC(r) Plans and any other marketing related issues including AI Driven Bots.
Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs – where you can meet Sophia the world’s first robot to have citizenship
In addition with the cost benefits ,it will be a biggest disruption that our media industry is going to witness ,but my concern is about the human touch what we are going to miss ,we expect our news reader to show expressions with respect to the type of news and have empathy with the happenings,and moreover it’s like coming back to our radio time,I am happy to know your opinion on the role that AI can serve if it is used in the content generation and detection of false media propagation?,because we are the victim of this.And as an enterprenur i am highly influenced by your SOSTAC planning method ,as i am thinking of starting a media startup in the field of detection of false media(news which are not true,and are created everyday by media houses and mostly on social media ),is it feasible to implement sostact planning framework?
Yes Gulshan, you can use the SOSTAC® framework for any kind of plan. There is a need for ‘false media/fake facts/fake news/fake comments’ detector. I have a vague idea there are some attempts to do so out there – anyone know?