Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is a term that is now widely familiar to everyone. To enhance everyone's understanding of AI, this article will introduce AI and two of its applications. If you are interested in AI, feel free to read on with me!
I. What is Artificial Intelligence?
What is artificial intelligence? Simply put, it's using computers to replicate human thought processes, that is, achieving the effects of human thinking through computers. The problems that AI algorithms deal with, and the results of those processes, are unpredictable.
Currently, society often confuses ordinary pattern recognition and robotics with artificial intelligence. This stems from a lack of understanding of the concept of artificial intelligence, leading to the indiscriminate categorization of all advanced technologies under this umbrella. From another perspective, this actually hinders the development of artificial intelligence.
For a long time, people have been accustomed to referring to systems that incorporate computer processing as intelligent systems. Therefore, when people see the term "artificial intelligence," they immediately associate it with intelligent systems. In fact, these are two completely different concepts.
Intelligent systems are systems implemented based on deterministic algorithms. They process a certain objective function according to an algorithm, and the result is deterministic. For example, in automatic control systems, closed-loop PID control enables mechanical positions to reach a predetermined position as quickly as possible, or temperatures to reach a predetermined level as quickly as possible. These algorithms are often based on classical theories. Furthermore, there are many classic classification algorithms in pattern recognition intelligent systems. For instance, using Euclidean distance, one can calculate which of several vectors a feature vector is closest to. These are fundamental algorithms for pattern recognition, and a pattern recognition system that incorporates these algorithms is an intelligent system.
In robotic systems, the robot's walking and arm movements need to be programmed into the system beforehand. Only then can the robot walk and perform various arm movements according to the programmed instructions. Laypeople might assume that robots, like humans, can perform actions at will, but this is not the case. For example, if an unpredictable obstacle appears while the robot is walking, it will inevitably trip. However, if the robotic system is equipped with artificial intelligence algorithms, the robot can autonomously navigate around the obstacle based on its own judgment.
Therefore, the difference between ordinary intelligent systems and artificial intelligence is that ordinary intelligent systems are classical algorithms that only satisfy the objective function and solve problems where the result is predictable. Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, imitates the way the human brain processes problems or can objectively achieve the processing that the human brain can achieve. The problems that artificial intelligence aims to solve and the results of its processing are often uncertain or unpredictable.
II. Applications of Artificial Intelligence
(I) New Applications of 5G Communication - Visual Self-Service Brings New Interactive Experiences
Latest data shows that my country has 561 million 5G users, and has built and activated 2.312 million 5G base stations, accounting for over 60% of the global total. In the first quarter, the national average 5G download speed was 334.98 Mbps, with a peak download speed of 472.92 Mbps. With such fast speeds, coupled with the support of artificial intelligence, what else can it be used for besides browsing social networks, daily work, and study?
China Unicom's "5G New Communication Intelligent Interaction Platform," showcased at the event, leverages the "high bandwidth, low latency, and ubiquitous connectivity" characteristics of 5G. Utilizing 5G audio and video interaction and AI atomic capabilities, combined with advanced technologies such as AR&VR, 3D modeling, and intelligent interaction, it achieves audio and video interactive applications within the framework of 5G's inherent services. The platform employs multimedia, 3D modeling, real-time tracking, sensing, and intelligent interaction technologies to realize end-to-end visualized and intelligent new communication services, providing enterprises and governments with functions such as 5G audio and video interaction and smart virtual avatars.
For example, the financial industry application platform allows users to remotely access bank counter services, enjoying the same experience and privacy protection as in-person transactions; the energy industry application platform has restructured the application system of the well site intelligent linkage system, realizing digital management of well site resources and digital compilation of well site patrols. The transportation industry platform provides barrier-free intelligent communication services based on 5G new communication, and offers smart elderly assistance services with visual interaction for elderly passengers.
It is worth mentioning that the platform has achieved compatibility with domestic mobile phone chips in terms of localization and independent control; the platform supports domestic systems, and the mobile phone side is compatible with Huawei Kirin chips and MediaTek Dimensity chips, supporting Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, VIVO, Meizu series of domestic mobile phones.
(II) "Digital AI Humans" are Smarter – Integrating with Large Models Enables Them to "Understand Your Words"
In simple terms, "digital humans" are virtual humans. Leveraging a human-like appearance and an artificial intelligence core, digital humans have begun to be commercially implemented in numerous industries, assisting human services and improving business efficiency. For example, in sectors such as finance, culture and tourism, media, public services, healthcare, and retail, digital humans can serve as customer service representatives, financial advisors, news anchors, and tour guides. In the cultural and entertainment sector, they can form IP assets as virtual idols and virtual singers. In smart vehicles, smart transportation, and smart homes, they can provide intelligent services to users by integrating with smart devices.
Tencent Cloud's intelligent small-sample digital human production platform was recently released to the public for the first time. With just 3 minutes of real-person spoken video and 100 sentences of audio material, the platform can generate a high-definition human image in real time through multimodal data input, including audio and text, producing a near-realistic "digital human" within 24 hours. Compared to photo-generated digital humans that only represent facial features, the small-sample digital human can design gestures based on text, replicating the style of a real person through lip movements, mouth shapes, and facial expressions.
At this year's Zhongguancun Forum, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily also tried using a digital virtual anchor to replace a real anchor for 24/7 live streaming, which attracted a lot of attention from viewers.
However, previous digital humans have shown significantly weaker thinking abilities compared to real humans. At this year's Zhongguancun Forum, the "Zhipu AI Brain-Based Digital Human," launched by Zhipu AI, is much smarter. It no longer adheres to fixed interaction methods but possesses a nascent ability to understand human commands and intentions. Zhipu AI's technology is derived from the research and development of the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University. In 2022, the company collaborated to develop the bilingual, trillion-level, ultra-large-scale pre-trained model GLM-130B and led the construction of a high-precision general-purpose knowledge graph. These two elements are organically integrated into a cognitive engine driven by both data and knowledge, and ChatGLM is built upon this trillion-level foundational model. Through this large-scale cognitive model, it connects hundreds of millions of users in the physical world, empowers metaverse digital humans, and serves as the foundation for embodied robots, giving machines the ability to "think" like humans. Furthermore, it is a bilingual digital human that speaks both Chinese and English.
