Sogou, Xinhua virtual anchor heralds AI era

Chinese search engine Sogou launched an AI virtual anchor - the world's first human replica intelligent virtual host, at the Fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province.

The technology simulates natural speech and expressions, integrating advanced image detection and prediction capabilities, as well as speech synthesis, to allow the virtual anchor to "broadcast" text inputs in real time.

His appearance and voice are modeled after Zhang Zhao, a real anchor at Xinhua News Agency, an official State-run media outlet. Once a user inputs news text, a virtual Xinhua news anchor will appear on-screen.