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Developed by Xinhua and the Chinese search engine company Sogou, this anchor has been designed to simulate human voice, facial expressions and gestures.
The news agency said the simulations could be used on its website and on its social media platforms and will help "reduce the cost of producing information and improve efficiency."
He did not specify whether one or the other television channels run by the Chinese state had shown interest in acquiring the technology for future use.
The anglophone anchor, accompanied by a suit and tie, is inspired by a real Xinhua anchor named Zhang Zhao.
A Chinese language version, based on another real Xinhua anchor, was also unveiled at the conference.
"His voice is too stiff and there are problems with breaks," said a user.
"Apparently, journalists have to lose their jobs," said another.
China has one of the most aggressive media censorship regimes in the world and has tightened restrictions on domestic and foreign media under President Xi Jinping. But that did not stop his newsrooms from innovating.
While Xinhua claims that the virtual anchor is a world first, it is not the first time that the Chinese media are experimenting with AI technology.
Advanced software erases sources such as business results reports and baseball scores, and then turns the data into sentences that humans can understand.
