A news anchor opens the broadcast with a “Hello.” Nothing unusual, except that she isn’t human. In China, two humanoid robots with biomimetic skin have just presented a newscast, a world first.
- The Xinhua News Agency presented at the World Media Summit in Beijing two humanoid robots with biomimetic skin, including Xinyan, created by UBTECH Robotics
- Director Zhang Yimou designed the robots’ visual and physical appearance to align with television aesthetics
- Connected to the Xinhua Yudian platform, these robots present information and interact with the audience, but do not draft content themselves; editorial control remains in the hands of human journalists
- Xinyan and her teammate, the unfamiliar faces of Chinese TV news
- Zhang Yimou at the helm: when a filmmaker shapes robots
- Augmented journalists or mere mouthpieces: the real role of these machines
Xinyan and her teammate, the unfamiliar faces of Chinese TV news
The state news agency Xinhua chose a high-profile setting for its announcement: the World Media Summit in Beijing. On stage, two life-sized humanoid robots—a man and a woman named Xinyan—took the floor before the audience. It was she who opened the show, with this simple greeting.
What strikes first is their appearance. Their biomimetic skin imitates both the look and the feel of human skin, a detail that radically changes how viewers perceive them. We are far from the metallic, angular robots that still populate the collective imagination.
Behind this feat stood a clearly identified duo of actors: the Chinese robotics manufacturer UBTECH Robotics handled the entire fabrication, while Xinhua retained full ownership rights over the project. UBTECH developed the synthetic skin, the operating system, a language model with an emotional component, and all the embodied intelligence hardware necessary for these machines to function.
Another piece of the technical puzzle: the robots are connected to Xinhua Yudian, an AI-powered news platform and assistant launched in June. According to Xinhua, this connection makes the broadcast content traceable, secure, and controllable — three words that say a lot about the concerns surrounding such a device.
Zhang Yimou behind the controls: when a filmmaker shapes robots
The name is surprising in this technological context: Zhang Yimou, a renowned Chinese director, was hired as the chief image designer for the two robots. His role isn’t a marketing gimmick; he actually directed the visual and physical design of the machines.
The stated objective was clear: to bring these artificial presenters closer to the aesthetic codes of traditional television presentation. A filmmaker accustomed to composing images for the big screen found himself shaping facial features, postures, and stage presence crafted for the living room screen rather than a cinema hall.
This collaboration illustrates a rather unexpected logic: to render a robot credible in front of a news camera, you don’t merely stack mechanics and artificial intelligence. You also need an artistic eye capable of thinking through body language and expressiveness, elements usually reserved for human actors and presenters.
Augmented journalists or mere mouthpieces: the real role of these machines
The central question remains: what exactly do these robots do once the spotlights are on? Their mission unfolds in three precise facets. These humanoid presenters assist the editorial team, notably by presenting information, broadcasting multilingual content, and interacting with the audience in real time.
They do not write anything on their own. Zhou Jian, founder and president of UBTECH, explains the internal mechanism: a so-called “brain-expression-control” system draws in real-time from verified and authorized information. This architecture is designed specifically to limit the risk of hallucinations, that well-known flaw of generative artificial intelligence which can sometimes fabricate facts.
Qian Tong, head of Xinhua’s New Media Center, underscores this point: journalists and editors remain the central editorial actors of the system. The robots execute; humans decide. Forum participants also collectively emphasized a point: human judgment, field reporting, and fact-checking remain indispensable.
In other words, Xinyan and her teammate do not replace a newsroom; they extend its voice. The nuance matters: these are sophisticated broadcasting tools, not autonomous authors capable of deciding what deserves coverage or not.
Source : ‘World-first’ bionic humanoid robot anchors unveiled by Chinese state media (interestingengineering.com)
Article prepared with the help of AI · Our method
