VOA慢速英语--机器人会接管新闻业的未来吗?

Future of News: Will Robot Readers Take Over?

Technology is forever changing the way we get our news. Many people now get a lot of their news on electronic devices, instead of traditional media, such as newspapers, television or radio. An increasing number of people also report turning to social media for information.

Now, there is a new technology that could greatly change the way we get the news: computer-created news readers.

Recently, China’s state-supported news agency Xinhua launched what it called the world’s first artificial intelligence, or AI news presenters¹. Xinhua said it worked with the Chinese search engine Sogou to develop the AI presenters.

The news readers - created by machine learning technology - are based on two real-life Chinese newsmen. One is able to present newscasts in English; the other, in Mandarin³ Chinese.

In Xinhua’s report about the launch, it said machine learning was used to examine video images and sounds of the two newsmen. The system then created the AI robotic presenters, which look and sound like real people.

Similar technology has been used to create video products known as “deepfake videos.” A deepfake is a video that looks real, but was electronically changed. Such videos can make people appear to say things they never said or do things that never actually happened.

Xinhua said the AI presenters will be a great improvement to the news team because they “can work 24 hours a day” on its website and on social media. One of the presenters even promised to “work tirelessly” to keep people informed.

Xinhua claimed the AI newsmen were able to read the news “as naturally as” a human presenter².

Some machine learning experts said the system showed off China’s latest progress in voice recognition, text-to-speech technology and data analysis. But several experts suggested that the term AI does not correctly describe abilities of the robotic news readers.

On social media, many Chinese noted⁴ that the AI presenters did not seem real. People criticized them for not being more lifelike. On China’s Twitter-like service Weibo, several users wrote that the news readers have “no soul.” One user joked: “What if we had an AI leader (of China)?”

Others wondered about the effects robots might have on employment and workers. “It all comes down to production costs, which will determine if [we] lose jobs,” one Weibo user wrote.

Some people argued that only low-level jobs requiring heavy labor⁵ will be easily replaced by robots. Others praised the technology as a way for companies to make money from low-cost labor machines.

A writer for the MIT Technology Review declared Xinhua’s news reader announcement as “fake news.” China’s news presenter “isn’t intelligent at all,” the report said.

MIT Technology Review said the presenter itself is little more than “a digital puppet that reads.” It added, “The ‘AI’ in this case is the software that learns what makes a convincing-looking face and voice.” While the demonstration⁶ was clearly evidence of improved technology, it was “a very narrow example of machine learning,” the report said.

Some businesses have experimented with similar technology for possible use in news operations.

Britain’s BBC recently released a video that used machine learning to make it look like one of its news readers was speaking different languages. The London-based company that developed the system says its goal is to “remove the language barrier” for many different kinds of video across the internet.

Also, developers working on Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker system have worked to create a special news reader voice for the electronic assistant.

Trevor Wood works on text-to-speech technology for the Alexa system. He said in an internet post that a machine learning system was able to help Alexa ‘learn’ to speak in a news-like voice after only a few hours of examining data.

Such a system could be further developed to provide other kinds of speaking voices for different situations, Wood said. Amazon is reportedly preparing to launch Alexa’s news reader voice in the near future.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

artificial intelligence – n. ability of a machine to use and analyze⁷ data in an attempt to reproduce human behavior

data analysis – n. process of using computers to gather and inspect facts and other information

soul – n. the part of a person that is not their body, which some believe continues to exist after death

determine – v. discover the facts or truth about something

fake – adj. false, not true

puppet – n. a person controlled by someone else

software – n. programs used to make a computer do different things

convincing – adj. able to make you believe that something is true

1 presenters   

n.节目主持人，演播员( presenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Each week presenters would put the case for their favourite candidate. 每个星期主持人推出他们最喜欢的候选人。 来自互联网
• Karaoke was set up to allowed presenters to sing on the stage. 宴会设有歌唱舞台，可让出席者大演唱功。 来自互联网

2 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

3 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

7 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。