China's Xinhua News Agency has unveiled two humanoid robot news anchors at the 7th World Media Summit in Beijing, in what the agency describes as a world first for broadcast journalism.

The robots, named Xinyan and Xinyu, were shown on 5 November at a summit forum on artificial intelligence and Chinese-style modernisation. Built with robot maker UBTECH, they connect to Xinhua Yudian, the agency's AI system for current-affairs and political information, launched in June 2026.

The robots can read the news, answer questions face to face and draw on Xinhua Yudian's vetted current-affairs information to respond. Qian Tong, director of Xinhua's New Media Center, said the vision is to support reporters and editors through news reading, multilingual information and on-site dialogue, rather than replacing journalists.

The unveiling came during a summit attended by about 500 delegates from 330 media outlets, research institutions and government organisations, under the theme Media in the Age of Intelligence: From Consensus to Action. Artificial intelligence in journalism was the central topic of the gathering.

Xinhua first introduced an AI news anchor in 2018, but that system synthesised video of a person. The new robots put the agency's AI into a physical humanoid body, the latest sign of how quickly newsrooms are experimenting with AI tools for gathering, producing and presenting the news.