Tencent-backed Sogou to unveil AI novel readers which look exactly like authors

China’s second largest search engine has entered into a strategic cooperation with Shanghai-listed Zhangyue Technology, the developer of iReader, an e-book reader like the Kindle and an app offering pay-to-view novels. The goal is to apply artificial intelligence technologies in the online literature sector, according to a Sogou press release.

For the first step of the partnership, Sogou will develop two video-based AI novel readers for Zhangyue. They will be based on and look and sound exactly the same as the two popular Chinese authors Yue Guan and Bu Xin Tian Shang Diao Xian Bing. Videos of the AI versions of the authors reading their novels can be played back on the Zhangyue app.

Before getting into the online literature space, Sogou already used AI technologies, including speech synthesis, image detection, and prediction on the world’s first AI news anchors, along with China’s official Xinhua News Agency. An English-speaking and a Chinese-speaking AI news anchor have been in daily use on Xinhua’s website since November 2018.

The new AI novel readers will use the same technologies behind the AI news anchor and therefore might look and sound similar. It is not yet clear whether Zhangyue app users will find a use for these AI authors after the novelty effect wears off.

Sogou’s explorations beyond the media sector can be seen as an attempt for Sogou to commercialise its AI technologies, at a time when its core search engine business has slowed. The company, which has Tencent as one of its largest shareholders, booked US$303.6 million in revenue in the second quarter of this year, a 1 per cent increase year-over-year, out of which US$276.2 million was from search and search-related revenues, representing a 2 per cent increase year-over-year.