Xinhua News Agency unveiled two bionic humanoid news anchors, a male robot named Xinyu and a female robot named Xinyan, developed with UBTECH, at the Artificial Intelligence and Chinese Modernization forum in Beijing on November 5, 2026. One of them read the opening news on stage. The forum was part of the seventh World Media Summit, co-hosted by Xinhua and the Beijing government. Xinhua describes the robots as the first of their kind; we have not been able to verify that claim.
Why it matters: news anchors are one of the oldest commercial uses of digital humans. Xinhua is now testing the same job with a physical robot and a closed, vetted information source.
Key Facts
- Unveiled: Nov 5, 2026, Beijing; anchors named Xinyu (male) and Xinyan (female)
- UBTECH: bionic skin, embodied hardware, operating system, an “emotional” large model and manufacturing
- Content: connected to Xinhua Yudian, the agency’s AI current-affairs agent and corpus
- Design: film director Zhang Yimou served as chief image designer
How do the anchors decide what to say?
They connect to Xinhua Yudian, which Xinhua describes as traceable, secure and controllable. UBTECH founder and chief executive Zhou Jian said the system retrieves reviewed, authoritative current-affairs information in real time, which he said avoids the risk of spreading generative-AI hallucinations. Qian Tong, director of Xinhua’s New Media Center, called the robots a new type of editorial job in the newsroom, with journalists and editors remaining the main editorial actors. Their stated tasks are presenting information, multilingual output and live interaction.
How is this different from earlier AI anchors?
Xinhua introduced on-screen AI anchors, built with Sogou, in 2018. The new anchors are life-size robots customised for news presentation, and Xinhua says it holds the intellectual-property rights to them. Zhou listed possible later uses including study bases, city reception venues and overseas cultural exchanges; none was demonstrated. Beijing is also piloting ID cards for digital humans, and we compared presenter avatars in our Synthesia report.
Frequently Asked
What are Xinhua’s humanoid news anchors called?
The male anchor is Xinyu and the female anchor is Xinyan. They were unveiled in Beijing on November 5, 2026.
Who built Xinhua’s robot anchors?
They were developed by Xinhua with UBTECH, which supplied the bionic skin, hardware, operating system, an emotional large model and manufacturing.
How do the Xinhua robot anchors avoid AI hallucinations?
They are connected to Xinhua Yudian, the agency’s AI current-affairs agent and corpus, which UBTECH says retrieves reviewed information in real time.