It was no wonder that everyone thought he was a scammer. He had done an even worse job than scammers!
Pei Qian was glad. Old Ma had not disappointed him indeed!
Chapter 685 - Intelligent Voice Assistant AEEIS
October 17th, Monday…
Pei Qian was in the company as usual, but no one came to the door.
He ran the webpage casually but took out his cell phone suddenly when he remembered something and checked Ma Yang’s Weibo.
Old Ma’s Weibo was not updated for the entire weekend!
Pei Qian was a little puzzled. What did this mean? Old Ma forgot about it?
He went out to party during weekends and did not even enter Weibo?
It was impossible. Old Ma might not persevere very long in things, but it was too short this time. Old Ma had no reason to give up so soon, right?
Why did he not post anything new on Weibo over the past two days during the weekend then?
Pei Qian was afraid that something wrong had happened so he quickly called Old Ma.
“Hello? Brother Qian?” Old Ma sounded very crisp, not as if he just woke up.
Pei Qian knew very well that Old Ma was not someone who liked to sleep in. He could also get up successfully for class in the winter mornings.
Old Ma was a hardworking slacker which was why it was suspicious that he did not post a second post on Weibo.
Pei Qian did not beat around the bush with Ma Yang. “How much money have you sent out so far?” He asked him directly.
Ma Yang: “Not a penny.”
Pei Qian was stunned. “Why?”
“This is the Dream Fund that I won with hard work. It is the affirmation of my hard work by Brother Qian! I have to see real dreams before sending money. I cannot just spend it without reason!” Ma Yang replied naturally.
Pei Qian could not help but want to laugh.
So that was why!
Ma Yang had been reading comments and forwarding comments after he posted the post on Weibo. He would consider sending money once he saw something more dream-related.
However, his Weibo only had so few fans. Not many people could see it, and people who saw him did not believe it. They thought he was lying. Those who were suspicious did not write their dreams seriously either.
Therefore, none of these messages could get into Old Ma’s eyes. He did not give a single penny to these people.
The more he did not give a single cent, the more people felt he was a scammer so they did not leave serious comments for him.
He, therefore, dragged out the entire weekend.
Pei Qian could not help but sigh. As expected of Old Ma! You really had a way!
“Then, why didn’t you emphasize for everyone to write something dreamier?” Pei Qian asked with some curiosity.
“No! I’m an official Tengda employee. I cannot lose my standing! Moreover, I’m handing out money. If I were to post another Weibo post to emphasize it, then won’t it seem like I’m begging to give them money? Surely not!
“I’ll leave it to them. I’ll see who the first lucky person is.”
Pei Qian silently put his thumbs up and said, “Yes, Ma Yang’s giving money away in Weibo, a great hero.”
There were many instances where people watched on without doing anything because no one believed in the circumstances as well.
For some reason, that was actually happening.
Of course, Pei Qian was not sure if this was good or bad.
There was no risk for Old Ma to become an internet celebrity, but the money had not been spent yet!
Therefore, Pei Qian did not know whether to support or oppose this behavior.
He decided to let Old Ma decide for himself after some thought!
“Well, you are doing the right thing. Continue persevering in your thoughts!”
Pei Qian checked the time and prepared to go to Otto Technologies after he hung up the phone.
Pei Qian spent a lot of money on Otto Technologies, mainly spent on the newly established imaging and software laboratory of Otto Technologies in the last cycle.
Otto Technologies’s research had to be converted into products in this cycle. Otherwise, it would violate system rules.
Pei Qian felt that he still had to take a look to ensure that there would be products that would not make a huge profit, considering how tight this cycle was.
…
Otto Technologies, conference room…
Chang You and the core employees of Otto Technologies had all arrived and started their reports.
“Boss Pei, We have two main tasks until January next year according to your previous work arrangements.
“The first was to update the Otto OS to become more feature-rich. That would include many practical system functions, especially the adjustment of the camera system in the imaging laboratory.
“For the new camera system, we have prepared some optimization algorithms, including beauty effects for users when taking selfies.
“Moreover, we have reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Xunke Technologies to develop our own intelligent voice assistant which could be updated with the new OTTO OS in time!
“You know, currently, only the Pineapple flagship phones are equipped with this feature. It will definitely help enhance our brand value if we can update it into the Otto E1 cell phone first!
“Secondly, we intend to create a smart speaker product for the new intelligent voice assistant. At present, this field is still empty in China. It will definitely be good news if we can seize this opportunity to enrich our product line!”
Pei Qian’s mind filled with question marks.
?
Intelligent Voice Assistant?
No, there shouldn’t be this item in the developments previously, right?
Moreover, this shouldn’t have appeared so early in China, right?
Pineapple’s latest flagship mobile phone could use voice assistants because they spent 200 million US dollars to acquire an artificial intelligence company whose main business was in text chat services and then cooperated with the world’s largest voice recognition manufacturer to achieve the voice recognition function.
These just happened this year.
Pei Qian originally estimated that it would take at least five years for intelligent voice assistants to appear in China because of the different languages.
However, according to Chang You, this company called Xunke Technologies seemed to have been doing research in this area. There was already a more matured Chinese intelligent voice assistant. It could be used directly after changing it!
Pei Qian suddenly felt a sense of crisis and thought of the special reward for settlement.
Could that be what the system called random technological breakthrough?
Domestic technology advanced five years in this area? Directly in competition with top foreign companies?
Pei Qian suddenly panicked. However, he felt that things weren’t that bad after thinking calmly.
These artificially intelligent voice assistants were quite mentally retarded when they were first launched. They were artificial retards instead of intelligence.
They would still need at least three or five years to maturity so there was no need to be too stressed up about it.
Of course, Pei Qian should not let down his guard as well.
It was a new outlet after all. It might be artificially retarded, but it was still very attractive to consumers who had never seen it before. There was no ruling out that they might buy into it crazily.
“That is to say, the original development plan did not include an intelligent voice assistant? It is something you decided to add in temporarily due to the technological breakthrough of Xunke Technologies?” Pei Qian tried probing.
“If that is the case, I think it’s better to not adopt it so early.
“There are still a lot of other aspects of work, I’m afraid that you wouldn’t have enough time or would impede the progress of your other work.”
“Previously, we planned to make the software and hardware together for a new phone. However, Boss Pei, you said before to only work on the software and to release software only once a year. That was why we cut away the hardware R&D plan for this year.
“So we just happened to have some free time! It is very suitable for us to make this artificial intelligent voice assistant belonging to Otto OS!
“Therefore, Boss Pei, your idea was right. We have to set aside money for R&D; otherwise, we won’t be able to seize the opportunity!”
Pei Qian: “…”
That was awkward.
Could it be my fault again?
Pei Qian could not help but wish that he could transmigrate to the previous week to beat himself up every time he met with such a situation.
It seemed like this intelligent voice assistant had to be done then.
To the next topic…
Find a way to prevent this thing from succeeding!
In the current market environment, there were smart homes. For example, Liang Qingfan included the lighting and glass in the Sloth Apartments which could be intelligently adjusted through the LCD panel.
However, these things were actually quite rarely installed at home since they were quite costly and not practical to most people.
Pei Qian would not have thought of installing such things if he did not want to increase the rent of Sloth Apartments.
The same was true for intelligent voice assistants on cell phones. It was not cheap at all. Only the flagship cell phone of Pineapple was equipped with them. It was an investment opportunity.
If they were to come up with another smart speaker, it might really be able to sell for a lot of money!
Pei Qian considered for a while and thought of a countermeasure.
But… where should he start?
From its name!
Pei Qian pondered for a while before asking. “So… does this artificial intelligence speaker have a name?”
Chang You was taken aback. “Oh, not yet. Boss Pei, why not you name it?
“I feel that the names given by Boss Pei spell their essence!”
Pei Qian nodded. “Call it: AEEIS.
“Its English name would be AEEIS.”
“AEEIS…” Chang You read it twice. “Is there a deep meaning to it?”
Pei Qian explained: “It is short for ‘An Efficient and Effortless Intelligent System’, A.E.E.I.S.”
Chang You replied with happiness: ” ‘An efficient and labor-saving intelligent system’? Good name! Very appropriate!
“As an intelligent voice assistant, its role is to help us save time and effort and improve efficiency. This name is really appropriate!”
Pei Qian grinned.
In fact, the deep meaning of this name was the abbreviation of ‘An Erudite and Easy-going Intelligent System’.
Everyone knew what it meant to be erudite and easy-going.
Of course, Pei Qian had already figured out what to do with it, giving it this name.
Chapter 686 - Super Evolution of the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine!
Pei Qian coughed lightly. “So do you have ideas in mind about how to make an intelligent voice assistant?”
Chang You was confused. “Uh… Boss Pei, what do you mean by ‘idea’?”
“Pineapple cell phones also have these intelligent voice assistants; Shenhua Corporation and the other companies must also be thinking of developing their own intelligent voice assistants, right?” Pei Qian explained.
“We definitely cannot be very much faster than other domestic companies even if we are a little faster. This is a technology from Xunke Technologies after all. Everyone can use it.
“So how can we ensure that our intelligent voice assistant can stand out from the rest?”
Chang You was stunned. “Uh…
“Boss Pei, I’m afraid that is very hard to achieve in a short time.
“The vast majority of companies should be directly using the ready-made technology of Xunke Technologies. We do not have any accumulation of experience in this aspect. Even if we optimize some details, it is impossible to start with other companies in a short time.
“Moreover, the current voice assistants might be called ‘artificial intelligence’, but the actualized workflow is ‘recognizing voices, judging what it means, and executing operations’—that was… judging the user’s intentions through some keywords but could not really understand the meaning of it.
“To make a voice assistant good to use would be physical work to a certain extent rather than technical work.
“Therefore, even if we worked hard on development, it is impossible to open a big gap with other companies practically.
“Or… Boss Pei, do you have a better idea?”
Pei Qian smiled. “If you don’t consider the technical aspects, there are many things that could be done to make it unique.
“For example, its character.”
Chang You was stunned for a moment. “Character? Boss Pei, as I just said, this voice assistant doesn’t really understand the meaning of our words.”
Pei Qian nodded. “I know, ‘character’ is just a type of packaging.
“If I’m not mistaken, the intelligent voice assistant produced by Xunke Technologies should be very sweet and polite and try to imitate a natural human voice?”
Chang You nodded. “Y-Yes. Can it be made into anything else?”
Pei Qian. “Of course.”
“Make AEEIS into a purely electronic mechanical sound without any emotion. Moreover, all answers should be extremely concise—no extra words.”
Chang You froze for a moment. “But, Boss Pei, that will make our voice assistant look particularly dumb.
“If AEEIS answers the users in a particularly concise way, the user may not be able to react, or he might not have heard it so he would ask it again. It would look very dumb if the same answer was given twice.
“It would seem even more stupid if it was said in a pure mechanical voice.
“The other voice assistants basically applied some ready-made, recorded sentence patterns, so that… on the one hand, it would give users time to respond, and on the other hand, it could appear more natural and intelligent.
“For example, when a user asks ‘what’s the temperature tomorrow’, the existing method is to automatically identify keywords and answer: ‘Hello, we have inquired about tomorrow’s weather conditions for you, tomorrow will be sunny, XX to XX degrees, wind speed is etc., etc.’
“The assistants would appear smarter with more information.
“To do what Boss Pei—you said, would be to directly answer: XX to XX degrees.
“If the user does not hear clearly, they will ask again, and AEEIS will directly answer XX degrees to XX degrees, which will make people feel very rigid and idiotic.”
Pei Qian thought for a while: “Well… this seems to be a problem.
“Well, let’s do it this way. If the user asks the same question twice, just answer it in another way.
“For example, if the user asks how the temperature will be tomorrow, the first time they answer is XX to XX degrees, and for the second time, they will answer: ‘XX to XX degrees. You just asked this question. Do you want directions to the nearest hospital to check if you have problems that may be affecting your hearing or memory?’ ”
Chang You was stunned. “Boss-Boss Pei, we cannot insult our users…”
Pei Qian smiled slightly: “How can this be an insult? This is clearly expressing concern for our users.
“AEEIS is an erudite and easy-going intelligent voice assistant. It can’t swear. It will only answer users’ questions very honestly and will express ‘concern’ for users from time to time.
“This highlights the character of AEEIS: it is a very smart intelligent voice system because it is too smart so it only answers the questions you ask—very direct and very simple.
; “Moreover, it is also because it is so smart… that if you ask it the same question repeatedly, it will think you are stupid and propose ‘kindness and care’.
“Wouldn’t that make it unique from the other systems?”
Chang You’s mouth opened slightly, his expression confused and his body not reacting for some time.
He could feel something not very right—something was very, very wrong!
“Then… Boss Pei, should I use a male voice or a female voice for AEEIS? How about finding a good voice actor to dub it?”
Pei Qian just wanted to say ‘a horrible male voice’, but after another thought, he felt wrong.
The lesson learned from Game Designer!
At that time, Lu Mingliang dubbed it, but something went wrong. Until now, many players still regard that cheap male voice as a classic.
Then, a female voice?
No, with this kind of erudite and easy-going personality, it may attract countless fans and become a virtual idol debut on the spot.
Pei Qian thought about it for a while. “An electronic voice that is indistinguishable.”
There should be no problem with a gender-neutral voice, right?
Chang You was very lost. He quickly noted down everything in his little notebook, but he did not feel it was reliable at all.
However, they should still do it since Boss Pei already said it.
They could still change it if the effect wasn’t desirable.
Pei Qian continued, “By the way, you are thinking of making a smart speaker for it?
“In other words, in addition to the OTTO cell phone, is this smart speaker also to be installed on it?”
Chang You nodded. “Yes, Boss Pei.
“As far as I know, there are some other companies that are also doing similar projects.
“There must be a speaker since it is an intelligent voice.
“Since there is a speaker, a Bluetooth speaker will be the most practical. This is a normal business idea.”
Pei Qian shook his head. “This idea is too common!
“We make speakers because the others are making them so we can only compare the parameters and appearance of the speakers, which is meaningless.”
Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883 Page 446