Chinese search engine Sogou is creating artificial-intelligence lookalikes to read popular novels in authors’ voices.
It announced “lifelike” avatars of Chinese authors Yue Guan and Bu Xin Tian Shang Diao Xian Bing – created from video recordings – at the China Online Literature+ conference.
Chinese think tank iiMedia expects the market to more than double between 2016 and 2020, to 7.8bn Chinese yuan a year.
Last year, Sogou launched two AI newsreaders, which are used by the government’s Xinhua news agency.
Appetite for audiobooks in China is on the rise.
