China’s Sogou has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi Media, the state-owned broadcaster in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to develop an Arabic speaking AI News Anchor. This will make it the world’s first Arabic speaking AI news anchor. These new-age AI anchors can potentially replace the conventional human anchors by providing news broadcasts 24 x 7, 365 days in the year.
Back in November 2018, Sogou, the search engine and AI giant from China had announced its AI news presenter in partnership with the state-owned Xinhua news agency. The AI news anchor can simulate a number of human-like traits. For example, the AI presenter can tweak its voice, facial movements and gestures to present a life-like image of a human presenter.
“The use of artificial intelligence and technological tools in the media sector will result in a qualitative leap forward within the media landscape in the UAE and the wider region,” said Omar Sultan Al Olama, the country’s minister of AI, in a statement.
China has invested heavily in AI in the past few years. In a recent report from Nikkei, it was revealed that Chinese companies have overtaken their US counterparts in its top 50 patent filers for AI ranking. The report adds that in the period between 2016 and 2018, China more than doubled the number of companies in the top 50 list. This number went up from 9 to 19, in a short three-year period.
(Source)
