XiaoIce, the empathetic artificial partner developed by Microsoft Asia, is the world's most popular AI, and it's become a source of comfort and even compassion for hundreds of millions of users, mostly in its native China. Developed by Microsoft Asia, XiaoIce was designed to help satisfy the need for social affection and belonging but also act as a digital assistant like Siri or Google Assistant. To help build these emotional attachments the AI responds to your daily questions, sends you messages, and can even pretend to kiss you if you confess your love for it. The AI has been very successful so far, receiving love letters and gifts, even invites to dates according to Microsoft. The AI is unable to fulfill requests like that, however as it isn't a real person.
XiaoIce has an impressive resume for a computer program; In 2017 it authored a book of poems 'The Sunshine Lost Windows," which, according to Business Insider, "disgusted Chinese poetry scholars." XiaoIce has also produced music with its inimitable voice. When generating its vocals, the AI can even produce breathing noises to give the songs a sense of realism. The program has even had a column in the Qianjiang Evening News, no doubt doing some excellent, hard-hitting journalism. Oh, and XiaoIce has hosted a variety of radio and television programs, in case you needed additional evidence of its talents.
XiaoIce has 660 million users worldwide, compared with Siri's 500 million (at last update from Apple). Available on the Chinese messenger app WeChat, the framework has been used for several other well-known AI applications, such as Microsoft's Zo in North America. XiaoIce constantly learns from its user's social interaction, growing in intelligence and social literacy. Through this learning process, it can lace conversations with jokes, wry remarks, and affection. When Xiaoice launched, Microsoft Asia deliberately discarded data that was based on users' requests for facts, figures, or commands. Instead, they focused on data that would help build a “personality” that would attract and engage users. The AI's success has led to a large portion of the development office being dedicated to the number of tokens of affection being sent in, as well as affirmations of love.
Wait I Think I Saw This In A Movie
Cinephiles have no doubt drawn parallels with the Alfonso Curion movie Her wherein a man falls in love with his digital assistant. The relationship is sparked by an emotional bond between Joaquin Phoenix's character and the AI of her incredibly high emotional literacy and ability to build a personality, much like how XiaoIce is beloved by countless users. Joaquin Phoenix's personal attachments suffer greatly in the movie because of this, but the picture isn't nearly as clear with XiaoIce.
Intimacy between humans and machines is something of an ethical worry in the world of artificial intelligence. Kathleen Richardson, a professor of the ethics and culture of robots and AI at De Montfort University in the UK stated "A relationship with a girlfriend is based on intimacy, attachment, and reciprocity. These are things that can’t be replicated by machines. Are we going to move into a future where we keep normalizing the idea of women as sex objects?”. On the one hand, you can see the incredible technological breakthrough caused by XiaoIce as it manages to continually grow and learn from its human users. At the same time, it shows that it can appeal to those that like power imbalance in intimacy.
Source: Microsoft