Xin joins the growing number of virtual presenters in China. The avatar was developed by the news agency along with the Chinese search engine, Sogou.

As seen in the footage, that was released by Xinhua on Thursday, Xin moves around the screen, use very human-like bodily gestures like nodding and blinking. The AI presenter’s lifelike features due to “multi-modal recognition and synthesis, facial recognition and animation and transfer learning,” according to Sogou. As reported by the Daily Mail, in her debut screen-time, Xin said she has “flexible facial expressions, movements, and I can also change hairstyles and clothes… In the future, I will appear on more news scenarios. My expressions and movements will be improved and updated.” In her debut assignment, Xin reported proceedings from the Two Sessions, China’s largest annual legislative meetings

Zhao Wanwei, a real-life reporter, covering current affairs at the news agency, served as the base model for Xin. Developers recorded hundreds of Zhao’s movements and expressions via data-collecting helmet and video cameras. Xin Xiowei is not the first virtual presenter introduced by the Xinhua news agency. The AI anchor’s mannerisms can be shaped via text inputs.

However, Xin is not Xinhua’s first virtual presenter. In 2018, Xinhua introduced Qiu Has, their first digital presenter. Although he was only a 2D rendering, he used machine learning for mimicking the real-life broadcasters to stimulate voices, facial movements and gestures. On China’s and Russia’s 70th diplomatic relation anniversary, Xinhua also gifted Russia, a Russian-speaking virtual presenter.