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. Now, there is a new way we get the news: computer-created news readers.

Recently, China’s Xinhua launched(推出)the world’s first AI news presenters with the Chinese search engine Sogou. The news readers created by machine learning technology are based on two real-life newsmen. One is able to present newscasts in English; the other, in Mandarin Chinese.

Machine learning is used to examine video images and sounds of the two newsmen, which look and sound like real people. 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 Al does not correctly describe abilities of the robotic news readers.

On social media, many Chinese noted that the AI presenters did not seem real. People blamed them for not being more lifelike. Others wondered about the effects robots might have on employment and workers. Some people argued that only low-level jobs requiring heavy labor will be easily replaced by robots. Others praised the technology as a way for companies to make money from low-cost labor machines.

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 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.

The lander carrying China's first Mars rover (巡视器) successfully touched down on the red planet early Saturday morning Beijing Time. It is the first time China has landed a probe (探测器) on a planet other than Earth.

Tianwen—1, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on July 23, 2020. This is the first step in China's planetary exploration of the solar system, with the purpose of completing orbiting, landing and roving on the red planet in one mission.

The name Tianwen, meaning “questions to Heaven”, comes from a poem written by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (about 340—278 BC). China's first Mars rover is named Zhurong after the god of lire in ancient Chinese mythology, which echoes with the Chinese name of the red planet: Huoxing (the planet of fire).

Tianwen—1was launched via a Long March—5 rocket, China's largest launch vehicle. The craft has been traveling in space for nearly 10 months. It was 192 million km from Earth when it reached.

The craft's plummet (骤降) through the Martian atmosphere, lasting about nine minutes, was extremely complicated with no ground control, and had to be performed by the craft autonomously within a very short period of time.

Geng Yan, an official with the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA, said, “What added to the difficulties was that we don't know much about the Martian atmosphere, which brought a lot of uncertainties to the mission. Each step had only one chance, and the actions were closely linked. If there had been any flaw, the landing would have failed."