The world's first bionic humanoid robot news anchors were unveiled on Thursday at a forum on artificial intelligence and Chinese modernization held in Beijing as part of the 7th World Media Summit.
The launch marked a step toward putting the innovative model of combining authoritative news content with embodied AI into practical use, offering a new approach to news communication in the age of artificial intelligence.
The humanoid robot news anchors, named Xinyan and Xinyu, were jointly developed by Xinhua News Agency and UBTECH, a leading Chinese robotics company, with renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou as the lead designer of the robots' visual identities.
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 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 is co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, and organized by Xinhua's Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Department, New Media Center and Xinhuanet. It aims to provide a platform for dialogue and cooperation among global media organizations and build consensus on the use of AI in communication.
