14 years of presents

LONDON — As an adult, Owen Williams had long stopped believing in Santa Claus. But this week he amused Twitter with the tale of a secret Santa in Wales: a neighbor who left Mr. Williams’s young daughter 14 years of Christmas gifts.

The neighbor, Ken Watson, was a widower who had become fond of Mr. Williams’s 2½-year-old daughter, Cadi. He died recently in his 80s.

It’s not clear why Mr. Watson chose to give Cadi 14 years’ worth of Christmas presents. Mr. Watson had two children of his own but no grandchildren, and he showed grandfatherly love to the children of his neighborhood in Barry, in southern Wales, i+ by spoiling them with gifts.

On Monday, Mr. Williams opened the door to his home in Barry to find his neighbor’s daughter standing there with a sack filled with colorfully wrapped presents that Mr. Watson had bought for Cadi.

“He always told us he’d live till he was 100 years old,” Mr. Williams wrote on Twitter, “so these gifts would have taken him up to our little girl’s 16th Christmas.”

After the initial shock, Mr. Williams and his wife, Caroline, were faced with a conundrum: Should they open all the presents right away and rewrap them to be given out in age-appropriate order, or should they give their daughter one randomly picked gift from Mr. Watson each Christmas?

The couple turned to Twitter to settle the question, garnering 67,022 votes in a poll.

The verdict: The Williamses should leave the presents as they are, and dip into the offerings once a year until Cadi is 16.

Mr. Williams revealed they have already opened a first gift. They couldn't resist. Cadi received “Christmas Eve at the Mellops,’” a children’s book by Tomi Ungerer, wrapped in purple and blue paper.

Cadi is still in the dark about it all. “She’s too young to understand,” said her father, who acknowledged in a Twitter exchange on Wednesday that he was overwhelmed by the media attention his story had received. More than 39,000 Twitter users had “liked” Mr. Williams’s initial tweet by Wednesday, but several people said they were, frankly, bewildered by Mr. Watson’s generosity.

Candi and some of the presents she will receive

From The New York Times (edited)

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Shifting shifts

Shashauna Phillips, a 43-year-old single mother in Charleston, South Carolina, loves her job at Walmart. There is just one problem. As a customer-service manager, responsible for supervising cashiers and keeping customers happy among other things, she is rarely given consistent working hours. “One week I might have four days on the schedule and the following week I might have two,” Ms Phillips says. “It makes my life a struggle.” 

Things may be getting better. Walmart has launched a new scheduling system that will give its 1.5m domestic workers more predictable shifts. 

Over the past decade, American big-box retailers, supermarkets and fast-food chains have relied on workforce-management software to match worker supply and demand. Such systems boost profitability by scheduling only the minimum number of employees needed to keep lines moving and cash registers ringing. But they also encourage practices like keeping workers on-call for shifts that may never materialise, or sending them home early when business is slow. This kind of just-in-time scheduling is widely disliked by workers. A study published in 2017 found that the average worker is willing to give up 20% of wages to avoid an irregular schedule set by an employer on short notice.

Lawmakers in Congress have left the question for companies to resolve. Some companies have implemented reforms in response to public pressure. In 2014 Starbucks announced an end to “clopenings”, the practice of scheduling an employee to close a shop late in the evening and return hours later to open it the next morning. The next year, more than a half a dozen retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, J.Crew and Victoria’s Secret agreed to end on-call scheduling after New York’s attorney-general began investigating the legality of the practice.

This system cuts costs in the short term, but may also lead to higher employee turnover, absenteeism and poor service. A recent paper by Mr Kesavan and others found that employee-friendly scheduling—keeping shifts more consistent and allowing workers to swap shifts via a mobile app—boosted sales at a group of Gap stores by an average of 7%. 

As wages rise, and workers become more scarce in the USA, more employers are likely to learn this lesson. “When there are no jobs around, workers have to put up with unpredictable schedules,” Mr Kesavan says. Now, “they can walk across the street to another retailer.”

From The Economist (edited)

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Yellow Vests protests

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Paris from the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina and went to the Arc de Triomphe to assess the damage after rioters defaced the landmark.

A government spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux, said France will consider imposing a state of emergency to prevent a recurrence of what is being described as some of the worst civil unrest in more than a decade by protesters. 

It did not help that Mr. Macron was 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires for the Group of 20 economic summit meeting during the violence.

 ‘‘What happened today in Paris has nothing to do with the peaceful expression of legitimate anger,” Mr. Macron said on Saturday in Buenos Aires. “Nothing justifies attacking the security forces, vandalizing businesses, either private or public ones, or that passers-by or journalists are threatened, or the Arc de Triomphe defaced.”

The problem the government faces is that different factions of the Yellow Vests have different demands. While they all want a better standard of living, some are furious at Mr. Macron for what they see as unjust tax policies that help the rich but do nothing for the poor, and they want him out of office. Others are more focused on raising the minimum wage and reducing the amount taken out of employee paychecks to cover social security and related services.

Gérard Noiriel, a historian at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, said “Macron thinks that this movement, which effectively rallied fewer than 300,000 participants at its first protest and fewer than 80,000 today is going to weaken more and more and that the violence is going to discredit the Yellow Vests in public opinion.”

The problem, said Bernard Sananès, president of Elabe, a French polling organization, is that “there are two Frances. One is a France that feels left behind and moving down the socioeconomic ladder”.

A study released this past week by the Jean-Jaurès Institute, a public policy think tank, said: “In the past, these people could have given themselves some outings and entertainment; today those little ‘extras’ are out of reach.”

Multiple surveys of public opinion released in the past week suggest that 70 percent to 80 percent of French people sympathize with the Yellow Vests’ slogan that President Emmanuel Macron “talks about the end of the world while we are talking about the end of the month.”

The slogan refers to Mr. Macron’s focus on reducing climate change by promoting fuel efficiency and raising gas taxes in contrast to French working people who struggle to make it to the end of their month on their earnings.

The median disposable income for a person in a French household was 1,700 euros a month, about $1,923, in 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to Insee, the French government’s statistics agency.

Disposable income reflects the amount left for workers to spend on their daily needs — housing, food, schooling, clothes — after paying income taxes and payroll taxes and making adjustments for any government subsidies for which they might be eligible.

Often the only way to reduce costs has been to move to the exurbs of major cities, where real estate prices are much lower, but where workers generally must rely on a car to get to work. Cars need gas and so any gas tax increase hits them. Taxes have also risen on tobacco and other goods.

For rural workers and those who live in distant small villages in the heart of France, a car is even more clearly a necessity.

Centrist politicians, even some who support Mr. Macron, are beginning to push for a more engaged response from the government.

 “You can’t govern against the people,” said François Bayrou, the leader of the Moderate Democrats, who are partners with Mr. Macron’s La Republique En Marche party in an interview on Europe 1. “The government can’t keep adding taxes on top of taxes.”

From The New York Times (edited)

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Which countries grant paid paternity leave?

What do China, India, South Sudan and the United States have in common?

They are among the 92 countries where there is no national policy that allows dads to take paid time off work to care for their newborns.

According to a data analysis released on Thursday by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, almost two-thirds of the world's children under age 1 — nearly 90 million — live in countries where dads are not entitled by law to take paid paternity leave. In these countries, this policy is typically decided by employers.

According to the World Policy Analysis Center at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, 185 countries guarantee paid leave for mothers, with at least 14 weeks of leave in 106 countries.

Here are some highlights from the findings — and insights on paid paternity leave from researchers at World Policy Analysis Center and UNICEF.

Asia leads in paid paternity leave. Japan and South Korea have some of the most generous policies in the world. One year of paid leave is available for the father, but very few dads take advantage of it.

The U.S. — home to 4 million newborns— is one of eight countries — along with Papua New Guinea, Suriname and five small Pacific Island states — where there is no national law guaranteeing paid parental leave for either moms or dads.

But a growing number of states in the U.S. have introduced paid leave policies, according to UNICEF. "The decision to provide paid paternity leave is not just a question of income," says Heymann. "It's the decision of valuing the roles that fathers are playing with their infants."

Countries in every income group offer some kind of paid paternity leave. That includes countries with high infant populations like Brazil, an upper middle-income country, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a low-income country, which offer less than three weeks of paid paternity leave.

One low-income country, Tajikistan, and some lower-middle-income countries, like Uzbekistan and Mongolia, offer more than 14 weeks of paid leave for dads.

"As you go up the income level, you see more countries providing more generously," says Heymann. "Among middle-income countries, there are 14 countries that provide 14 weeks or more, and in high-income, 28 countries."

Momentum is building for family-friendly policies across the developing world. Over the past decade, a handful of countries in Africa have introduced paid paternity leave. In 2008, Mauritius introduced one week.  In 2010, Rwanda introduced four days  and Gambia introduced two weeks.

India, which has one of the highest infant populations in the world, is proposing the Paternity Benefit Bill for consideration in the next session of parliament. This could allow fathers up to three months of paid paternity leave, according to Dr Pia Britto, chief of early childhood development at UNICEF.

From NPR (edited)

Young children are spending more time on small screens

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization found that 98 percent of USA homes with children now have a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone.

That's a huge leap from 52 percent just six years ago. Mobile devices are now just as common as televisions in family homes.

And the average amount of time USA smallest children spend with those handheld devices each day is skyrocketing, too: from five minutes a day in 2011, to 15 minutes a day in 2013, to 48 minutes a day in 2017.

James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, says this is "fundamentally redefining childhood experiences" with "enormous implications we have just begun to understand."

Other highlights from the survey:

• 42 percent of young children now have their own tablet device — up from 7 percent four years ago and less than 1 percent in 2011.
• Nearly half, 49 percent, of children 8 or under "often or sometimes" use screens in the hour before bedtime, which experts say is bad for sleep habits.
• 42 percent of parents say the TV is on "always" or "most of the time" in their home, whether anyone is watching or not. Research has shown this so-called "background TV" reduces parent-child interaction, which in turn can hurt language development.

The growth of mobile is a dramatic change. But other aspects of kids' media use have been more stable over time, this periodic census reveals.

When you take every source of screen media together, children 8 and under spend an average of about 2 1/4 hours (2:19) a day, a figure that is flat from 2011 (2:16). That implies mobile is apparently cannibalizing, not adding on to, the boob tube and other types of media.

And, whether young kids are looking at small screens or big ones, most often they are passively watching videos, not using interactive apps. Video watching has dominated children's media use for decades.

Finally, young children are still being read to by their parents about 30 minutes a day.

What does all this mean? Researchers don't really know.

The public conversation about kids and screens is somewhat schizophrenic. American schools are buying millions of electronic devices, and there are tens of thousands of apps meant to enhance learning for even the smallest babies.

On the other hand, doctors warn, and parents worry, about negative effects from too much screen time, ranging from obesity to anxiety.

Unlike in previous years, this census shows both rich and poor families now appear to have nearly equal access to smartphones. At the same time, kids from lower-income families are spending twice as much time with screens daily as those from the most advantaged families. Is this a boon or a danger?

Lynn Schofield Clark at the University of Denver studies media use with a focus on disadvantaged youth and youth of color. She says the missing ingredient in understanding the real impact of the digital divide is parenting time.

"People who have more advantages have more time and education to help their kids use the technology," she explains. "We have set up a society where it's structurally very difficult for families to spend time together."

From NPR (edited)

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Heated arguments vs.real conversations

Families – they bring out the best in us and the worst in us. Which means gatherings for the holidays, anniversaries and other big events can sometimes be the scene for major arguments, ranging from the light (which is better: Game of Thrones or The Sopranos?) to the loaded (the most recent election).

For many of us, these discussions are our cue to excuse ourselves and see if help is needed in the kitchen. But we have much to gain by staying put, according to Julia Dhar, a behavioral economist and principal at the Boston Consulting Group.  She strongly believes that we can improve both our relationships and everyday discussions by bringing formal debate tactics, or what she calls “productive disagreement”, to our own lives. “All conversations are an opportunity to engage and persuade,” says Dhar.

Here are her strategies for turning arguments — no matter the topic — into mutually enriching experiences.

1. Call out disagreements.

“People can be hesitant to name conflict for what it is,” says Dhar, “and being the one willing to do that is really powerful.” Heated discussions tend to be the result of strongly held beliefs, so by acknowledging them, we are respecting the other person’s opinions and being true to ourselves.

But it’s important to do this in a calm, non-finger-pointing way. Dhar suggests saying clearly and directly, “I think the thing you and I differ on is this,” rather than “I think the thing you need to know or do is this.”

2. Establish a common reality.

Truth check: What attitude do you usually have when you’re heading into a disagreement? Says Dhar, “Speaking for myself, we go into arguments hoping we’ll make the other person realize how wrong they’ve been, and thank goodness, we’ve showed up to set them right.”

But after years as a debater and then as a debate coach, she realized, “Proving someone wrong is not a strategy; that’s just you talking at them.” Instead, she has learned the secret of “persuaders who are at the top of their game”: They find common ground with their opponents.

As Dhar explains, “There’s very good evidence that shows when you confront people with a ton of information or facts that contradict their worldview, it actually causes them to hold their existing beliefs more strongly.” Instead, she suggests you establish what she calls a “shared reality” for you and the other person.

Asking questions is an effective way to establish that reality. For example, if you and your sister disagree about public-school funding, you could pose questions like, “Can we agree that all children deserve a good education?” or “Is it fair to say that teachers should get the resources they need to best help their students?” Keep asking questions and — this is just as important — allow the person enough time to answer. Really listen to what they say. Do this until you arrive at a belief or set of beliefs that both of you mutually accept. This shared reality can then be the wedge that may open up the other person to your ideas — or you to theirs.

3. Focus on the issue, not the person.

Let’s be honest: We all draw conclusions about each other based on our various identities, be they millennial or baby boomer, working parent or stay-at-home parent, hybrid-car owner or SUV owner, and so on. In heated arguments, it’s tempting to make sweeping personal generalizations, which, as Dhar puts it, “is a recipe for a hot potato.”

Stay away from absolute statements like “Liberals only care about X” or “People in the military just want X to happen,” says Dhar. “This takes a little heat out of the conversation. Now it’s a contest of ideas, not an attack on the other person’s identity.”

4. Accept the possibility of being wrong.

You read that right. If you can go into a conflict indicating you’re open to having your mind changed, you create the space for the other person to do the same. This tactic makes you more objective, less defensive and, ultimately, more persuasive. Dhar advises, “Get yourself into the mindset of ‘This is a process of discovery to me as well.’”

Openness is a subtle trait to show, of course. But Dhar says you can signal it in many ways — through your tone of voice and emotional warmth and by asking questions respectfully and engaging with the other person’s answers. What’s more, this process can also soften you up. “The suspicions you hold about people who espouse beliefs you don’t have can start to evaporate,” she adds, “because you can imagine yourself stepping into those shoes.”

5. Use solid facts – but only if you have them.

Objective truth is “one of the things that is missing from so many of our conversations today,” says Dhar. She suggests, “Think to yourself: ‘Can I take on the role of the person who injects high-quality, objective facts into conversations that get really heated?’ This can feel incredibly empowering.”

So if you know there are certain hot-button topics that will most likely arise, you can do research beforehand (make sure your sources are sound and nonpartisan). But remember: A little goes a long way, as anyone who’s watched politicians reel off a mind-numbing litany of numbers at a debate can tell you.

6. Know when to exit.

Politely end your exchange as soon as you sense it’s run its course. One sure sign it’s time to stop: when you or the other person start repeating yourselves. Then, says Dhar, “Acknowledge, appreciate and switch.”

As she explains, “Acknowledge the mutual goodwill and emotional work it takes to have a conversation with people you disagree with, and then give back to the other person what they’ve given to you.” You can do this by saying things like, “I still believe X, but you’ve really helped me understand your perspective” or “I still find it challenging to do or believe what you’re advocating, but I appreciate what I’ve learned from you.”

Are you ready for Round 2? As Dhar puts it, “The magic of debate as a contest of ideas is there’s always a new debate around the corner.” So if you’re game, she suggests saying, “If you’re open to it, I’m curious what you think about topic X.” Try to choose a less contentious subject but one which you’re genuinely interested to hear another perspective. And if not, there’s always the kitchen.

From Ideas.TED.com (edited)

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The delivery trike Is coming

The T3. Tricked-out tricycles with heavy-duty suspension systems

The T3 is a tricycle built for grown-ups, and it is not for play.

Weighing 68 kg, it has an aluminum frame and sits on three small but durable bicycle tires with a heavy-duty suspension system in front. It can carry up to three times its weight.

The T3 — the “T” stands for “trike,” — is the latest prototype of an urban delivery vehicle from Upcycles, a Brooklyn start-up founded in 2017. Seeking to create a greener alternative to trucks for delivering everything from groceries to office supplies, the company built two earlier prototypes. The third, T3, is considered a bicycle under city law and can travel on the city’s growing network of bike lanes and park on the sidewalk rather than park in the street.

Upcycles most recently attracted the attention and support of Urban-X , a Brooklyn-based incubator program for city-focused start-ups, created by the Mini car company, which gave them $60,000. However, Upcycles initial funding of $600,000 came from one of its founders, the philanthropist Joshua P. Rechnitz, 53.  

The two earlier versions were both made from steel and were far heavier — requiring more effort to pedal, especially uphill, while T3 was designed from the start to be lighter and more easily and cheaply reproduced. Components of the trike include an electric hub motor for the rear wheel, a chain-drive system, suspension system and on-board computer.

 “In the next year we are going from a prototype toward production vehicles, building and producing small batches for our test users,” said Nick Wong, another Upcycles founder.

Because it is not a fully electric vehicle, T3 is still legally classified as a bicycle and can be parked in and go places trucks cannot. And because of its dimensions  T3 can fit through standard commercial doorframes for deliveries and between anti-terrorism bollards that have been placed on bike paths.

Several European cities have introduced restrictions on truck freight deliveries in downtown areas. That has helped foster interest in all sorts of human-powered “cargo cycles,” and many more companies are designing and manufacturing them in Europe than in the United States. The spectrum ranges from more personal types of heavy-duty two-wheel bicycles to different models of trikes and even four-wheeled quads.

From The New York Times (edited)

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The picture of wealth

Lee Shau Kee (photo) moved to Hong Kong from mainland China in 1948, the year before China’s Communist Party seized control. In 1976 he set up a property company, Henderson Land Development, which helped to develop the tallest building on Hong Kong island. Mr Lee is now the world’s 27th-richest person, according to Forbes, a business magazine. He and the 26 richer individuals have a combined worth of $1.39trn—more than the entire wealth of the poorest half of humanity.

This kind of startling comparison between the world’s most and least rich has been popularised by Oxfam, a charity. It draws on Forbes’s regular rankings of the world’s billionaires and the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s annual reports on household wealth. Tony Shorrocks, the lead author of the Credit Suisse report, is reasonably confident that the poorest half of the world owns less than 1% of its wealth. But it is hard to be more exact than that.

The measurements are, however, improving. In last year’s Credit Suisse report, the richest 1% seemed to claim more than half of the world’s wealth (see chart). But new and improved estimates suggest the share of the one-percenters may have peaked or levelled off. Between 2016 and 2018, it fell in Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, India and Russia and flattened off in USA, Canada, China, Italy and Japan.

To be a member of the 1%, a person now needs over $870,000 in net assets. Two-fifths of this 1% are in USA. In the past, the second-biggest contingent was always in Japan. But this year they live in China, home to 8.4% of them (and Hong Kong adds another 0.4%). China now has more than 1m more millionaires than the whole of Britain.

From The Economist

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Mystery of lost Argentine submarine ends a year later

Images showing the wreckage of the San Juan.Credit

After a year since 44 Argentine sailors vanished aboard a submarine, the wreckage was found. 

                                 

 “If we had a speck of hope, now there is none left,” said Gisela Polo, the sister of Esteban   Alejandro Polo, 32, one of the sailors who died. “We’ve seen the images. They described the depth where it was found. It makes no sense to keep talking about him in the present tense as if he were still alive.”

Ocean Infinity, a Houston-based ocean-mapping company hired a few months ago, found the submarine nearly 270 nautical miles from the port of Comodoro Rivadavia in Chubut Province and about 3,000 feet under water. The company used unmanned, robotic devices to find it.

Argentina’s government signed a contract with Ocean Infinity that guaranteed the company $7.5 million if it found the submarine. The deal came after many crew members’ relatives accused the government of abandoning the search. Dozens of them set up a makeshift camp outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires for 52, demanding that a private company be hired to look for the submarine.

The submarine was found in an area that was searched intensively and is filled with canyons and that became a focal point after the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which has sensors around the globe to monitor nuclear tests, recorded an incident deep in the ocean that was consistent with an explosion.

 “This is the area where we had assigned 90 percent of probability for it to be located,” said Vice Adm. José Luis Villán, the head of the Argentine navy. “All the navies looked in this area but absent the technology that Ocean Infity, we had not found it,” Mr. Villán said.

The Norwegian-flagged Seabed Constructor vessel operated by Ocean Infinity was scheduled to leave the coast of Argentina on Nov. 15, as the 60-day search contract was up and the crew was scheduled to head to South Africa in preparation for its next mission, said Oliver Plunkett, C.E.O. of Ocean Infinity. The company wanted to return in February to continue the search. But a member of the team found something worth postponing the departure by a few days so as to inspect more  closely.

It was the San Juan.

 “The remarkable thing about it, it was literally the last thing we were going to do,” Mr. Plunkett said. “It is a truly unbelievable moment, in the last hour on the last day.”

Many relatives of the victims received the news in Mar del Plata, a port city where they had already gathered in the last few days to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the disappearance.

Some relatives said the news, although painful, brought a measure of closure.

 “I had already assumed he died,” said María Itatí Leguizamón, the 33-year-old wife of Germán Oscar Suárez, a radar operator on the vessel who was 29 when the San Juan vanished. “But I couldn’t help it. There was a part of me that kept holding on to the hope that he could still be alive. But now I know for sure and I can mourn.

 “It’s strange how I feel such a mixture of happiness that they found it but also immense sadness. I just can’t describe it,” she said.

Ocean Infinity began its search on Sept. 7. Three naval officers and four relatives of crew members accompanied Ocean Infinity personnel aboard the ship. It involved “technology never before used during the localization of a submarine,” the navy said at the time.

The company would deploy “Autonomous Underwater Vehicles,” which are unmanned, robotic devices equipped with sonar and high-definition cameras that can function to a depth of almost 20,000 feet.

Ocean Infinity said Saturday that the wreckage of the San Juan was found  by five such vehicles. The devices were operated by 60 crew members on board the Seabed Constructor.

 “Our thoughts are with the many families affected by this terrible tragedy,” Ocean Infinity’s C.E.O., Oliver Plunkett, said. “We sincerely hope that locating the resting place of the ARA San Juan will be of some comfort to them at what must be a profoundly difficult time.”

 Mr. Plunkett said he hoped the “work will lead to their questions being answered and lessons learned which help to prevent anything similar from happening again.”

 From The New York Times (edited)

Lie detectors at EU airports

In several airports in Europe, passengers will be administered lie detector tests powered by artificial intelligence in addition to their normal security steps, according to a press release about the new initiative. 

A new European Union-backed project called iBorderCtrl will install lie detector tests at border checkpoints in Hungary, Latvia and Greece -- three countries that border non-EU nations -- for a test run this month, in which travelers from outside the EU will answer questions from a computer-animated border guard through a webcam. It will analyze travelers' micro-expressions to gauge whether they are lying, with human border guards overseeing the process and stepping in if a security risk is detected.

Travelers deemed to be low-risk during a pre-screening stage will only be asked about their basic information during the lie-detection process, while passengers who may be a higher risk will receive a more detailed screening. 

"It will ask the person to confirm their name, age and date of birth, and it will ask them things like what the purpose of their trip is and who is funding the trip," said Keeley Crockett, one of the experts involved in the project.

Some experts have doubts about the experiment, arguing that passengers will simply pay more attention to their physical cues and will continue to lie during the process.

“If you ask people to lie, they will do it differently and show very different behavioral cues than if they truly lie, knowing that they may go to jail or face serious consequences if caught,” said  Imperial College London's Maja Pantic. “This is a known problem in psychology.”

                                                     From USA Today

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First English AI anchor

News anchors, beware! The robots are coming for your jobs, too.

Xinhua, China's news agency, showed its "artificial intelligence news anchor" on Wednesday at an internet conference in the eastern city of Wuzhen.

"Hello, you are watching English news program. I am AI news anchor in Beijing," the computer-generated host announced in a robotic voice at that start of its English-language broadcast.

Developed by Xinhua news agency and Chinese search engine company Sogou, the anchor can simulate human voice, facial expressions and gestures. It can also deliver the news 24 hours a day and "read texts as naturally as a professional news anchor," according to Xinhua.

Xinhua believes China's state-run TV channels will show interest and acquire the technology to use in the future since it "can reduce news production costs and improve efficiency." 

But some experts are skeptical about the kind of news-watching experience an AI news anchor offers.

 Users of China's micro-blogging site Weibo were not completely convinced by the virtual presenter. "His voice is too stiff, and there are problems with the pauses," said one user.

"It's quite difficult to watch for more than a few minutes. It's very flat, very single-paced, it does not have any emphasis," Michael Wooldridge from the University of Oxford told the BBC.

China operates one of the most aggressive media censorship regimes in the world and, at the same time, it is constantly innovating its newsrooms.

In 2015, China's Dragon TV used Microsoft's XiaoIce chatbot for a weather report on its live breakfast show. The AI computer program delivered the forecast in a "cute" female voice.

AI technology is becoming more commonly used by news organizations worldwide. 

The Associated Press wire service uses sophisticated computer algorithms to write thousands of automated stories a year.

The Washington Post uses a bot system called Heliograf to write texts that humans can add to breaking news events.

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