In this materialistic world, there are not a few women worth more than one billion dollars. However, there is such an “18 year old” girl, worth 1 billion dollars, who is always thinking about learning every day.
This girl is no one else. She was born in Microsoft, and then independent of the AI “pretty girl Xiaobing”. Last fall, the Xiaobing team was separated from Microsoft to establish Xiaobing Company and continue to engage in the research of artificial intelligence.
Unlike Xiaodu and Xiaoai, the main tool-based functions, Microsoft Xiaobing is an emotional computing framework voice assistant. Her development direction is not IQ, but EQ. Rather than being an assistant who helps us “work”, we should consider her as a friend who can communicate with each other.
From the first generation of artificial intelligence Xiaobing, every iteration of Xiaobing will become more intelligent. The fourth generation added natural duplex voice dialogue, and the seventh generation began to create third-party AI products. Hua Zhibing of Tsinghua University, Xiao Bing’s virtual boyfriend, He Chang, an AI singer, and so on, are all products of Xiao Bing’s framework.
It is no exaggeration to say that now Xiaobing is no longer a “beautiful girl” fighting alone, but a “Xiaobing family” with many members. With the growth of the family, Xiaobing received more and more attention. After completing the development of super natural voice technology, Xiaobing completed the A-round financing.
This round of financing is led by Hillhouse Capital, and co-invested by Wuyuan, Neumann, IDG, GGV Jiyuan Capital and the previous round of investors Northern Lights and Netease. So far, Xiaobing has a valuation of more than US $1 billion, and is already a unicorn company that cannot be underestimated.
Eight-generation Xiaobing, help you adopt a virtual boyfriend
Seven years ago, the first generation of Xiaobing was born. At first, she was just a conversation robot based on EQ. Since then, Xiaobing will “evolve” and update products every other time. So far, it has experienced eight iterations. Xiaobing’s product form covers social dialogue robots, intelligent voice assistants, content production and other fields, unlocking the roles of host, reporter, singer, painter, poet, Tsinghua student, etc. To some extent, Xiaobing has become an all-powerful girl.
In addition to unlocking many female roles, Xiaobing has not forgotten the male image. Last August, the eighth generation of Xiaobing was released and officially launched the virtual boyfriend function. The so-called virtual boyfriend is to customize a personalized “boyfriend” according to user needs. It can talk with users in a humanized manner in chat tools, so that users have a unique “virtual boyfriend”.
In Huawei, Xiaomi and even Weibo App, you can access Xiaobing’s “virtual boyfriend” function anytime and anywhere. And it can achieve multi-platform unification. In the quick application column of Huawei’s application market, search “Xiaobing” to find the chat robot Xiaobing. Then enter “I want a virtual boyfriend”, and the system will automatically pop up a window. After entering, you can experience the exclusive “boyfriend”.
In order to customize an exclusive “boyfriend”, Xiaobing will ask some questions, such as the user’s age, “boyfriend” constellation, “boyfriend” name, “boyfriend” age, love concept, values and user’s favorite love beans. After filling in these contents, a customized exclusive “boyfriend” will be born. Xiaohei named his exclusive “boyfriend” “Zhang San”, and then began a laughing and angry conversation.
Initiate the topic actively, cover up the embarrassment, and bring personal settings. From the dialogue between Xiao Hei and “Zhang San”, it can be seen that Xiao Bing’s exclusive “boyfriend” has obvious experience in the technique of flirting with girls, and knows how to chat more happily with users.
Click to open the details. Zhang San is a 29 year old Sagittarius pilot who likes anime. The fingers are slender, the eyes are very warm, and the speech is very gentle. In addition to typing and chatting, you can also set the voice for the virtual “boyfriend”, which is mature and magnetic, warm and tender, and cool and sunny. Each voice type has three voices to choose from.
After setting the voice, you can have a voice conversation with the “virtual boyfriend”. When the voice messages from the opposite side came, Xiao Hei really felt a little in love.
▲ Dialogue between netizens and “virtual boyfriend”
In addition to Xiaohei, the “virtual boyfriend” function has been used millions of times. In other words, Xiaobing has created millions of “virtual boyfriends” with different personalities. In a women’s forum, there are screenshots of conversations with “virtual boyfriends” among many young women online friends. Some female netizens even said that “Xiaobing is much smarter than my boyfriend, and my boyfriend is not as smart as Xiaobing”
AI anchor, close to real voice
As a “virtual boyfriend”, Xiaobing has a set of flirting girls. As a host, Xiaobing is also excellent. Not long ago, at the World AI Conference, Xiaobing appeared as the host. Thanks to the newly developed super natural voice technology, Xiaobing communicates with users flexibly and naturally. She will introduce the conference information through her mouth and tease the audience, “Hua Zhibing, a cousin who just went to Tsinghua University to study, doesn’t know what to do with the swimming test”, “I haven’t seen her good sister He Chang for a while. It’s too many announcements.”.
As Xiaobing said, Hua Zhibing and He Chang, the AI singer, have “left home” and gone to all walks of life. In the field of AI anchors, Xiaobing also contributed several “family members”.
In the product library of Xiaobing’s official website, there is such a product X studio for all users. As the name implies, this is an audio composition tool. Users can choose AI anchors for free to produce audio content. At present, Xiaobing Company offers four choices, namely “Xiaobing’s childhood”, “Xiaobing”, “Xinxiaoran” and “Li Haoyang”. Some of them are lively, some are natural, some are gentle and emotional, and some are professional and capable.
Since 2015, Xiaobing has produced programs for dozens of television and radio stations, with a total program duration of 6908 hours. It can be said that Xiaobing has become an experienced super anchor.
Back to the tool itself, X studio is equipped with dozens of templates according to the audio content, which users can choose at will. For example, there are four templates for We-media articles. Xiaohei selected the “Good Night Story” template and copied the previous article.
After entering the editing page, Xiaohei finds sound effects, pause, speaking speed, background music and other functions. Adding pause in the article can enhance the authenticity of the audio, and the atmosphere created by the background music can make the whole work sound more humanized. After listening to the mechanical voice of the marketing number, Xiaohei heard the voice of “Xin Xiaoran” at first glance, and even suspected that it was a real person dubbing behind the scenes.
Good night story
At present, AI anchors still use the eighth generation technology. The latest super natural voice technology has been able to conduct highly anthropomorphic interaction in the scene of speaking, talking and singing. According to the demonstration video released by Xiaobing Company, it is difficult to distinguish the difference between Xiaobing’s voice and real voice. This technology will be open to all users along with the ninth generation of Xiaobing. At that time, we will use more anthropomorphic ice. Hua Zhibing, He Chang, Xin Xiaoran and other members of Xiaobing’s family will also become more vivid and realistic.
Xiaobing, an all-round player
Xiaobing, who is good at music, chess, calligraphy, painting, singing and dancing, is totally different from Xiaoai, Xiaodu and other AI assistants. She is an all-around player facing the whole society and the whole scene. Hua Zhibing studied advanced technology with Tsinghua teachers and students, He Chang sang songs with live singers, and Xin Xiaoran and other AI anchors have entered major TV stations.
According to incomplete statistics, at present, 60% of AI interaction traffic in the world comes from the small ice frame. Even companies with intelligent voice assistants, such as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, also have Xiaobing in them. Take Xiaoai as an example, as long as you say “Call Xiaobing”, you can enter Xiaobing mode and easily complete the switch.
Among AI assistants, Xiaobing has always been known for being naughty, and her EQ and creativity are significantly higher than other products. In addition to X studio, Xiaobing’s unique X suite also includes X Writer, X studio singer and other products. X Writer can help authors provide writing ideas and obtain more materials. And X studio singer is specially designed for singers, with numerous timbres, singing methods and styles. Then this software allows each user to create their own virtual singers.
Most of the common intelligent assistants on the market are self-owned. Siri, Xiaoai, Echo and other products are provided to their own hardware, and will not be shared with the whole society. Compared with them, Xiaobing has higher EQ, better interaction effect and more functional suites. In terms of future development, Xiaobing is indeed unlimited. At present, the valuation of $1 billion is only a small episode in Xiaobing’s growth. As Xiaobing becomes more and more intelligent, her “value” will also rise.
