It is being touted as the first Robotic News Anchor.

I might argue that in all my years in TV, I have seen a number of robotic anchors.

But,“Tuma Urman,” Russia’s first robotic TV anchor, has been ‘interviewed’ at a recent presentation in Moscow. The developers hope to ‘teach’ the machine to interview TV program guests all on its own, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The robot is expected to replace Anna Urmantseva, the host of a popular Russian science-focused TV show called “Brain Storm.”

“Plans are to program it to chat with experts and ask them questions. At inception, it won’t be its own ‘intelligence’ but rather myself talking via Skype; however, the machine will be mimicking emotions and turn in a desired direction,” Ms. Urmantseva said.

So far, “Tuma Urman” has been enabled to voice some phrases recorded for it and is still controlled from a standard laptop and a joystick. Its ‘head’ has 17 servo drives that give the machine its ‘emotions’, including fear, astonishment, contempt, etc.

Think about it, an anchor that never wants a day off and never complains that their co-anchor is getting more reads than them.

The future looks bright for you Producers!

H/T Geo.tv