**Is there any “soul” torture under the virtual human skin?**
In the 5G era of the Internet of Everything, media intelligence has become an irresistible trend and development direction. How to integrate artificial intelligence technology and media? What media ethics issues will be brought about by intelligence? Entering the era of intelligence, how can the media become a “looker” of society? Sina News and Cover News jointly launched the “Future Media Interview” program, a special topic on intelligent media. Explore issues related to smart media.
Guests in this issue: Xu Yuanchun, Chief Operating Officer of XiaoIce Company, Head of Artificial Intelligence Creativity Lab, Executive Member of CCF Computational Art Branch, Distinguished Expert of the Expert Committee of the Music Industry Promotion Committee of China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association, Future of China Musical Instrument Association Member of the Music Technology Professional Committee.
Moderator: Hello, everyone, this is the future media interview program jointly launched by Sina News Cover News. Mr. Yuanchun, in the video that we saw just now, which one was completed by the virtual anchor and which one was completed by the real person? Tell us about it.
Xu Yuanchun: Actually, when this video was launched, including when we and the Daily Economic News 24-hour Financial Television were launched, many friends from the media came to ask me which part of the question was generated by AI and which part was the virtual human. Completed. In fact, from the video just now, it is actually 100% completed by virtual people.
Moderator: How long does it take to make such a virtual person?
Xu Yuanchun: Of course, we say that the higher the quality of the virtual human, the longer it will take. If a simple and standard version of the virtual human is used, it can be completed in as little as a week. But in fact, behind this technology, it is the accumulation of technology for a long time and the investment of a lot of funds in the level of research and development. This is what we often want to say is ten years of work for one minute on stage , yes.
Moderator: We all know that this Xiaoice was founded in Microsoft in 2014, and then spun off in 2020 and started to develop independently. Can you tell us about Xiaoice’s opportunity to start this project?
Xu Yuanchun: In fact, at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, Xiaoice was actually a R&D project within the entire Microsoft R&D system. At that time, Microsoft had its own intelligent assistant, Xiaona, who was actually a task and knowledgeable robot. is an artificial intelligence.
At the same time, Microsoft, including the Xiaobing team, wants to explore whether we have another path, which is to allow machines or AI to have emotional companionship with humans. In other words, we have explored in another direction at the emotional computing level . , I think this is the starting point of all exploration, and then to explore the temperature that allows AI to have this kind of emotion of human beings.
Moderator: What are the advantages of these virtual people based on Xiaoice?
Xu Yuanchun: Xiaobing’s entire AI virtual framework is the most complete. It includes natural language processing, computer speech, and computer vision. It covers all levels of AI technology. Therefore, the virtual human created by this framework, first of all, his abilities are complete in all aspects.
The framework of Second Xiaoice was not born on the first day. In fact, after so many years of continuous research and development and technical investment, it has completed the implementation from the initial algorithm to algorithm engineering and final industrialization. the entire deployment. Many people say that they are virtual people, but if you really observe the market, there may not be so many real-time online services, so XiaoIce’s technology has always been a relatively practical, complete and implementable technology. frame.
I think the third characteristic is that we are in vertical scenarios with the entire industry, and whether our cooperation with partners is good, in fact, we have always chosen these leading companies to develop the most important scenarios in this industry. , In this way , it will be easier for others to follow up and use this technology, and its practical application value will be very large, not just a gimmick.
Moderator: What you just said above are all advantages, we want to know if there are any shortcomings.
Xu Yuanchun: I think all technologies will have their own shortcomings. I think from my personal point of view, in fact, the biggest challenge Xiaoice’s own technical framework faces comes from everyone’s expectations for us. Today, such a framework will become very powerful one day earlier, and it will become able to empower and create There are more and more kinds of virtual people, but in fact, the development of technology will not be achieved overnight. You will find that it is not only technology, but also a process for us to recognize this industry and recognize business scenarios. When a virtual person does this, you don’t know what the real application looks like.
Moderator: How do you feel?
Xu Yuanchun: In other words, if you don’t do it, that means we are like swimming. You don’t jump into the pool. You don’t know how to complete the final process. For example, from the framework of Xiaobing, you can think that Xiaoice is the first virtual person created in the whole framework, N Xiaohei N Xiaobai Cui Xiaopan, these are just different virtual people created in the framework, each of them has its own dimension, Serve one’s own scenarios and goals .
Moderator: We just talked a lot about this kind of high-tech topics. In fact, as an ordinary audience, especially ordinary people, he is very curious or he wants to know where this kind of virtual person can be applied in life.
Xu Yuanchun: Let me give an example, just like the N Xiaohe and N Xiaobai that I saw at the beginning of the show today, but in fact these two virtual people do not represent two virtual anchors, they represent the whole set behind them. system.
When you see such a 24-hour uninterrupted financial TV station, all its content is driven and generated by AI in real time, then there may only be interspersed news and guest interviews or are produced by human teams Completed, in fact, the rest are completed by human teams through such a set of AI systems.
So from this perspective, in fact, it is not just a role of two people, it actually represents the role of a team.
Today, this live broadcast has been going on for such a long time, but everyone slowly accepted it, saying that we have such a virtual team, which is also like the virtual person Cui Xiaopan we developed for the financial department of Vanke. Some time ago, Chairman Yu Liang I also sent him a circle of friends and awarded him a Best Employee Award, because he has achieved a very large and efficient output in the management of the entire financial cash flow, so we say these are experts, we At the same time, we developed this kind of intelligent assistant coach called AI for the State Sports General Administration. It has reached the standards of the International Snow Federation. It supervised the test competition of last year’s Winter Olympics, and also helped our aerial skills team win two golds and one silver. A historic achievement.
Today, many people go to interact with XiaoIce. XiaoIce has helped you create a lot of emotional companionship, virtual boyfriends and virtual girlfriends. We created this emotional companion robot for the elderly in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. This is a companionship type. In addition to this type of companionship, what else is there that we have disclosed today? For example, Xia Yubing, an AI painter who cooperated with the Central Academy of Fine Arts, participated in the Asian Digital Art Exhibition, and his works also participated in the World Expo in Dubai on behalf of China. , He also has a lot of interaction with everyone on the Internet.
Moderator: We want to know who is the prototype of Xiaobing and its virtual human, and how did it make it?
Xu Yuanchun: XiaoIce is actually the first virtual human created by our entire XiaoIce framework. From the perspective of XiaoIce itself, it actually has no prototype. In fact, we set many parameters through the initial project. determined.
Moderator: It is equivalent to saying that it is a brainstorming of everyone.
Xu Yuanchun: Yes, or in fact, if we talk about Xiaobing for so many years, she interacts with so many people on the Internet, in fact, everyone has shaped Xiaobing on social media in everyone’s mind, yes.
Moderator: R&D in any field is actually not for charity, but in the end, we all have to find a good profit model in order to survive. Then you can introduce Xiaoice’s business outlet to us.
Xu Yuanchun: We use people as an analogy. We have created digital employees today. They are actually the employees I dispatched. We can receive the same labor income as the dispatched wages. We have created an IP, a famous IP, we You can enjoy the commercial value brought by IP. In the same way, from the perspective of people, like the artists we created, we can share with the operator what we call future business income, so in fact, from the perspective of people, its business model is actually very extensive.
Moderator: Now more and more companies are starting to develop AI technology, such as AI music, AI writing has been widely used in our lives. Therefore, with the development of high technology, we now have all kinds of virtual people that are difficult to distinguish between true and false. As human beings, we are more worried. Now we are very introverted, so will it cause more damage to our living environment in the future? Threats of employment, will there be more pressure on employment issues?
Xu Yuanchun: Yes, in fact, many people will be very worried that today when AI becomes more and more developed and technology becomes more and more popular, what kind of challenge do we humans face?
For example, taking the daily economic news as an example today, in fact, since our 24-hour TV system such as AI TV was launched, does the original operation team host have a career? No host has become more famous . So what are these two hosts and operations teams doing? Their service scope has become larger, their production content has become more, they used to only be able to produce a limited amount of content for one day, and now they can support live streaming content. In other words, their position across the organization and in the media industry as a whole has been strengthened even more.
To give another example, at the very beginning, many designers would like to say, I introduced AI designers, will I be unemployed one day in the future, in fact, as we see today, all designers welcome this system very much ,Welcome AI designers, why? Because AI designers helped him complete more designs that are close to finished products, so he only needs to choose in the process, screen through his own aesthetics, and then quickly carry out secondary design , the entire design process can be completed soon.
What’s more important is that at the same time in the past, for example, you can only do one design a day, today you can do dozens of designs a day, Ai’s designers have even launched a one-to-one customization for customers. the design of.
So in my opinion, the greatest significance of AI is that it liberates us from the time-consuming things that we used to have, and it is actually difficult for humans to overcome, whether it is because of skills, accumulation of knowledge, or time . Well, the amount of your labor is limited by this factor, and then the effectiveness of your greater potential can be realized.
Moderator: You just mentioned the word customization path. Will the virtual person embark on a private customization path at present or in the future? For example, I customize my virtual person’s family doctor and housekeeper according to my own preferences and needs. Or the virtual person’s own friends, will this happen?
Xu Yuanchun: I think that with the continuous advancement of technology, it will inevitably increase the convenience and popularity of everyone’s access to technology. But based on the current situation, that is to say, the sound of Xiaoice’s technology is also very natural, so From the perspective of security and other considerations, these technologies are not open to ordinary users, we only It is provided to these enterprises, including users of organizational type, to ensure the security of data applications at the entire current stage.
Moderator: With the rapid development of this virtual human, will it bring some ethical and moral influence to our society?
Xu Yuanchun: In fact, many people will discuss this issue, so in fact, with the development of technology, I think that sometimes the development of technology is really fast because of the rapid development, so we do also appeal that in these aspects, whether it is legislation Regulations and data security should indeed keep up, and work in these areas should be actively promoted to ensure that when everyone uses a new technology, it will not affect the rapid development of the new technology, and at the same time, it can ensure that everyone is using this technology. security considerations.
Host: It is said that the virtual anchors N Xiaohei and N Xiaobai have been in class for 70 consecutive days, and no one has found out that they are not real people, including the anchor Feng Xiaoshu, who was launched this time in our Winter Olympics. In fact, he and Feng Xiaoshu The gap between Shu himself is not very big, including I recently read a Korean news that Korean dramas have begun to use virtual humans to play the role of running the dragon. It seems that countries around the world are actively developing virtual human technology. Tell us What is the stage of R&D in various countries now?
Xu Yuanchun: If we don’t compare today’s regions, it is actually easier for us to see its progress in different technical categories. For example, if you look at computer speech, look at natural language processing, and then look at computer vision, In fact, this is more of a technical dimension of an industry, so we can see what the conclusion is. Today, this technology is booming, and today the market has reached the eve of a rapid explosion, so whether we are starting from Whether the capital market or the technology market, everyone is full of confidence and expectations for this matter.
Moderator: What kind of stage is our country in China now?
Xu Yuanchun: I think in fact, today’s AI virtual humans in China, including companies like Xiaobing, have actually been at the forefront of the research and development of the entire industry in many aspects. So this is what we hope to say today, in all aspects, whether it is such industrial policies and the general environment, can give these companies and organizations greater vitality and more space, so that everyone can actively go to The development of these new technologies will produce a variety of effects that are better in terms of production efficiency and life. Yes, it is.
Moderator: Now Xiaoice has actually been applied in more and more fields, which field can Xiaoice develop into in the future?
Xu Yuanchun: We believe that in the future, we humans will be surrounded by many virtual people, that is, there will be many virtual people living around us, who can play many roles. When such a virtual artist is born, even When more virtual artists are born, whether we can enjoy it at home or in your office, the consumption of artistic aesthetics will be more satisfied.
We said today whether we can apply it in the field of clothing is also affirmative, is it possible that with the blessing of flexible production in the future, there will be no word Zhuangshan in this world, I think this is also achievable, you can even have a My own designer, or even such an AI designer, helps you to observe the matching of your clothing, even the color matching, and even the makeup matching every day, and I believe there will definitely be such an AI virtual person to help you. Manage your schedule better.
In fact, with the development and improvement of technology, the space we can imagine will be very large. The biggest space is not that technology has replaced certain roles in the past, but its greatest consciousness has created some things that we have never imagined. Possibility, it makes our lives better.
Moderator: In the final analysis, it can provide more meaningful and happy life for the common people. This is a place where he has benefits.
Xu Yuanchun: I think all technologies are for a better society and make everyone live a better life.
Moderator: I saw an interview with Mr. Li Di before. He said that what we do is human, and what is important is his soul. In the end, what do you think the virtual human’s soul looks like?
Xu Yuanchun: The soul here is a broad category. When we create such a virtual person today, in fact, he should have his own character, and he should have his own attitude. When he communicates with you today, he can express his own thoughts, which is also a lot When people communicate with XiaoIce online, they feel that XiaoIce has an opinion.
Moderator: I think he is a flesh and blood person.
Xu Yuanchun: At the same time, he also needs to have his own biological characteristics. For example, when he creates virtual people, he also has his own voice. Beyond these three points, what else is there for virtual people?
In fact, he also needs to have his own knowledge, he needs to have his own professional knowledge, but not every virtual person is a general knowledge.
For example, we created a virtual human like Guanjun to prepare for the Winter Olympics. What professional knowledge does he need? It is the professional knowledge of skiing, professional aerial skills, professional knowledge of referees, other than knowledge. In other words, people also have a very unique category of creativity, which will add a new dimension to you. For example, today Xiaobing can paint for you, and Xia Yubing can create ink landscapes for you. In fact, you will feel that this person can More fullness , so we mentioned that such a person needs his character, his attitude, his biological characteristics, knowledge, skills, and creativity in addition to his external things, so these In fact, it constitutes what we are today, whether we look internally or externally , in fact, it is our ability to measure a person,or to be able to feel him, to make you feel it warmly, and to create value for you. One of these essential elements.
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