Ananova was the world’s first virtual journalist created by the Press Association of the UK in 2000. She read news to web users and was fully interactive, speaking 16 languages and having green hair and large eyes. Ananova used cutting-edge technology to deliver news using a realistic voice and tone. The character was taken offline in 2004 and the Ananova name was discontinued in 2010.
Ananova was the world’s first computer-generated virtual journalist. It was created by a division of the Press Association of the United Kingdom (UK) and programmed to read news to web users. The character delivered his first online newscast on April 19, 2000. Although the character only read news on the Internet until 2004, the news was delivered under the Ananova name on Ananova.com until 2010, when the site was interrupted.
The character was a technological triumph. She holds a Guinness World Record for being the world’s first virtual presenter. The character was what the AI industry calls an intelligent agent, meaning that she was able to observe her environment and act accordingly.
The technology used to create it was cutting edge at the time. The most technically challenging feature of the character was his ability to deliver news using a realistic voice and tone. This was achieved using text-to-speech software called Realspeak created by Lernout and Hauspie Speech Products, a Belgian speech recognition technology company. This technology, coupled with automatic lip-syncing, made the reporter look like a real person.
Ananova’s first words spoken on a newscast were: “Hello world. Here’s the news. And this time it’s personal.” She was created to be fully interactive. Website users can enter preferences into the web page. The character would then read television news tailored to those preferences. She could also provide sports scores and weather or read a two-minute digest of the day’s news.
The creators of the character wanted to make her as likeable and reliable as possible. She spoke 16 different languages with an Atlantic accent. Research has shown that this accent was less distracting for listeners. The character also had green hair and large eyes and mouth to make her easily recognizable to viewers. Her makers described her as a 28-year-old girl who is nice and intelligent.
The name and virtual character were bought by the UK Press Association in 2000 from Orange SA, named the world’s fifth largest telecommunications company in 2009. Orange SA took the Ananova character offline in 2004, saying it needed to be updated to fit up to date with modern technology and would be back soon. She never came back.
Ananova.com continued to deliver the outlandish news it was known for until 2009. As of April 2010, the Ananova name was also discontinued. Visitors to the Ananova.com website are now automatically redirected to the Orange News site.
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