Xinhua said the two humanoid news presenters are named Xinyan and Xinyu and were jointly developed with UBTECH for news scenarios. Filmmaker Zhang Yimou led their visual design.
The pair use Xinhua's AI current-affairs agent Xinhua Yudian alongside technology that Xinhua described as covering bionic skin, embodied-AI hardware, an operating system, an emotion model and complete-robot manufacturing. The agency said they can present news on location.
Xinhua New Media Center director Qian Tong said the robots are intended to assist reporters and editors with news reading, multilingual output and on-site interaction, describing the newsroom position as a new role rather than a new lead.
Xinhua said future applications planned for the product include education and research bases, city reception venues, overseas cultural exchanges and deep-space reporting.
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